Café Liégeois
by 4mation
Summary: So a blind woman walks into a coffee shop… (Elsanna)
1. First Contact

**Café Liégeois**

Title: Café Liégeois

Author: 4mation

Type: Series

Rating: K+

Genre: AU, Friendship, Romance, Fluff

Warnings: fem!Slash

Pairing: Elsanna

Characters: Elsa, Anna

Summary: So a blind woman walks into a coffee shop…

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All names mentioned do not represent the true persons. All brand names do not belong to the author. No copyright laws or personal privacy laws are intended to be infringed.

A/N: My first Elsanna fic which **isn't** incest, but I hope that that doesn't put anyone off. For the sake of the scenario, it just had to be done. I just got this idea this morning for some reason, but it was so cute that I had to write something about it. Hope you guys enjoy J

* * *

When Anna first told her parents that she wanted to get a part-time job in college, they were amused but accommodating. When she then told them that she intended to become a barista, they were terribly confused and appropriately horrified.

Anna had been banned from the kitchen at home for very good reason; every time she entered, insisting that she could help, something was bound to go wrong. Her very touch brought about the dinner apocalypse. The pot on the stove would boil over, the bread would first burn and then inexplicably catch on fire, the chicken would be roasted to a crispy sooty black, the meat would always come out rare no matter how long it was left in the oven, the cake crumbled in on itself into a mess of rock-hard chunks and her father was still traumatised badly enough by her 'Fruit Sundae of Epic Awesomeness' that, four years later, he still couldn't look at pineapples and corkscrews in the same way. They were lucky that Anna's mother had forbidden her from attempting to slice and dice vegetables, or their beloved but hopelessly clumsy daughter would be short a few fingers.

Given all of these prior experiences, it was understandable that her parents were very unwilling to let Anna take on a job which not only involved the kitchen, but also multiple kettles filled with boiling water, lots of hot milk, skilled and graceful hands, and meticulous care. It took most of her first semester, endless wheedling and whining, about fifteen guilt trips, and an outstanding report before her parents finally caved in, praying that Anna would see the folly of her fantasy after only a few small burns.

They needn't have worried. Despite her almost supernatural clumsiness and outstandingly terrible cooking skills, Anna did surprisingly well as a barista. Maybe it was because she was an A+ student in her college Art major course or maybe it was just that Anna wasn't responsible for actually taking the coffee to the customers, but Anna was soon the darling of the campus Starbucks, and her peppy attitude and cheerful, all-loving nature soon won over her co-workers and manager enough that no one complained too much at the occasional shattered saucer.

All in all, Anna was happy. She loved her job, she enjoyed the company of her fellow staff, and she often found inspiration for her next artwork while tracing delicate flowers and hearts into the creamy foam atop lattes and cappuccinos. She was content and at peace, and she was convinced that she had never been happier.

Then, she walked in.

* * *

It was a warm summer's day when a young woman opened the door. The bell jingled merrily at her entrance, and Anna looked up from her freshly completed café mocha to see who it was, hoping that it was her lunch. Julia had been gone for forty minutes now, and Anna was famished.

All thoughts of her sandwich fled from her mind when she laid eyes on the goddess that had just entered.

She was tall but slim (willowy was the word that popped into Anna's mind), and her skin was a snowy white. She wore a light blue blouse and comfy shorts, leaving bare long expanses of pale legs (which Anna was definitely not admiring). Her platinum blonde hair was tied into a neat plait which was draped over her shoulder. But the most immediately noticeable feature of this woman was the large pair of darkened sunglasses that covered her face and the cane with which she gently probed her surroundings.

Irma hurriedly rushed to the blind woman's aid, welcoming her warmly to Starbucks and offering to help her to a seat. The blonde smiled in thanks and nodded her acquiescence, allowing herself to be led to a comfortable seat by the window. Her hair glowed brightly in the sunlight as she gently lowered herself onto the chair, resting her cane on the seat next to hers. Irma pulled out pen and notepad to take the woman's order, who smiled slightly as she requested an iced coffee.

At the sight of the blonde's smile, Anna melted. It was such a small thing, really just a slight upwards curve of the corner of her lips, but it remained one of the most beautiful things she had ever witnessed. In fact, Anna was so enraptured that it wasn't until her fellow barista Tiana cuffed her gently on the back of her head with the list of orders that she realised she had been staring. Suddenly embarrassed, Anna ducked her gaze and tried to distract herself by warming up the chocolate sauce, blushing as she felt Tiana grin knowingly at her.

Oblivious to her red-haired admirer, the woman reached into her satchel and withdrew a book. Tracing her finger lightly across the braille, she read in silence, unaware that she had acquired a certain barista's affections.

* * *

Her name was Elsa, she had only recently transferred to the University of Arendelle, she was currently taking a graduate course in Architecture, she had been blind since birth, and she was (most importantly) single.

All of this was information that Anna had uncovered through extensive research, snippets of conversations, and the books in and name tag on the blonde's satchel. Apparently, Elsa was kind of famous within the College of Architecture and Engineering; after all, who had ever heard of a blind architect?

According to Belle, Elsa was composed and reserved, quietly listening attentively from her seat at the front of the lecture hall. She was polite and gentle, but she never put much effort into building relationships with others. She never accepted nor rejected any advance or attempt at friendship, equally comfortable when sitting on her own or joined by others. She did not seek company, but company seemed to find her anyway. Being beautiful, refined, intelligent and fascinating, Elsa quickly became a common target for the affections of many hopefuls, but all of their pining was ultimately for naught; Elsa never showed any similar interest, and seemed to tolerate the attention at best.

This constant swarm of admirers was the reason Elsa had taken to spending most of her afternoons at Starbucks, Rapunzel told Anna over a shared plate of nachos at lunch. She'd been told by Eugene, who'd heard it from Eric, who'd got it from Hans that Elsa was actually a closeted lesbian, though Rapunzel confessed that she wasn't sure how much of this was fact and how much of it was rumours spread by frustrated boyfriend-wannabes. Rapunzel, knowing her friend far too well to be convinced by her feigned indifference, quirked her eyebrow in amusement when Anna tried to cover up her smile with a fistful of jalapenos, and then laughed out loud when the impromptu gag sent Anna running for the restroom, eyes watering and mouth burning.

All of this helped to give Anna an idea of who Elsa was, but it wasn't enough. She wanted to know the details, the little things, the intricacies of Elsa, the kind of thing that only friends and family would be privy to. She was so utterly fascinated by the blonde that she couldn't be content with this basic sketch, and so Anna made it her mission to become Elsa's friend.

Anna's first attempt was simple enough: on her break, she hung up her apron and strolled confidently to where Elsa was sitting in her usual spot by the window. The older woman was fully engrossed in her book, fingers flying rapidly across the letters. For a moment, Anna hesitated, not wanting to disturb the blonde, but she quickly shook away her doubt. If she was to ever become Elsa's friend, she would have to make the first move.

"Hi," Anna said brightly. "Do you mind if I sit here with you?"

Elsa's finger stopped on the page and she looked up at Anna. Or, more precisely, the general direction from where Anna's voice had come, meaning that she was staring more at a spot just over Anna's right shoulder.

"Yeah, sure," she said pleasantly. "Have a seat."

Cheering inwardly (phase one complete!) Anna smiled and sat down in the chair opposite the blonde. Elsa resumed reading, paying little attention to the redhead. It was definitely disorientating, Anna decided, to have the other woman so utterly engrossed in her book while she was still 'looking' in Anna's direction.

"Your name's Elsa, right?"

Elsa's finger stopped once more. This time, she lifted her finger completely off the page and, slotting a bookmark between the pages, she closed the book and placed it by her other notebooks and books stacked on the table between them. She smiled encouragingly at Anna.

"Yes, that's me. And you? You're Anna, right?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Anna, surprised. "How did you know?"

"I've heard Tiana shouting at you to stop forgetting to turn the stove off enough times to recognise your voice," Elsa said, grinning.

"You know Tiana?" Anna said, the only thing she could come up with when her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment.

"She showed me around on my first day," Elsa replied. "It's thanks to her that I found out about this place."

"So you're a coffee fan?" Anna asked.

Elsa smiled.

"Not really. It's normally too bitter for me, but I like the atmosphere here. It's, I don't know, relaxing, I guess?"

"Yeah, it is," Anna agreed appreciatively, looking around. The café had a warm, cosy mood, whether it was filled with serious learners at their laptops or sickeningly sweet couples.

Elsa took a sip of her iced coffee and made a face. She groped around the table, looking for the sugar. "And what about you?"

Anna smiled. "I'm a barista, so I guess it's kind of taken for granted that I love coffee. Especially the smell. Nothing like it, especially when you're tired after morning lectures!"

Elsa's lips curved into a small grin.

"Actually, I was asking how you knew my name."

In hindsight, Anna really should've planned this through a bit more. It would probably have given her some time to properly think up coherent, believable, totally-not-creepy answers that explained why she had basically been stalking Elsa. As it happened, she found herself completely unprepared and, caught off-guard by the question, Anna did what she always did when she panicked: talk way, **way** too much.

"Uh, your name? I kinda learnt it because it was on your bag, and I was wondering what your name was, so I checked it the other day, because I really wanted to know, since you're always in here, and I wanted to get to know you better, kind of like why I was asking around about who you are, I mean, not like a stalker but more like a 'who's she' kind of way, if that makes sense. What am I talking about, that totally doesn't make sense, and ugh, I'm making a total mess of this, aren't I, and you probably think this is getting totally weird. Not that we're weird, I mean, you're weird, I mean I meant that you're not weird, I'm weird, you're gorgeous… wait, what?"

And with that, Anna buried her face into her arms, totally embarrassed and completely sure that she had not convinced Elsa that she wasn't a stalker.

To her credit, Elsa managed to deal with that deluge of way-too-much information gracefully. Her shades covered her eyes so it was hard to tell what she was thinking, but her face remained expressionless as her mouth worked to find the appropriate response. Distracting herself by pouring some sugar into her cup, Elsa wasn't entirely sure what to make of this bizarre girl, but she found herself oddly fascinated by this quirky, strangely cute barista. She'd had her fair share of admirers, and from that outburst Elsa was fairly certain this girl was an admirer, but none of them had been so candid about their fascination with her. While this was definitely awkward, Elsa couldn't help but feel that this girl deserved a chance, or at least some comfort to reassure her that she hadn't absolutely made a mess of their first meeting.

"Well, that's interesting, I guess," Elsa managed. This statement did little to relieve the awkward silence hanging in the air, and if anything the younger girl seemed to retreat further into her arms with a crinkle of fabric and a small whine. Sighing, Elsa tried again.

"Look, I'm… flattered by how much effort you've put into your… research, I guess we'll call it? And I think I know why you're doing this, but I don't want to give you any false impressions. I'm definitely a little weirded out right now, but I get a feeling that you are too, huh?"

Anna's response was an embarrassed mumble. Holding in her sigh of exasperation, Elsa reached across the table to lay a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. Well, she was aiming for the shoulder: instead, she ended up awkwardly patting the top of the barista's spine.

"Hey, come on. Not everyone's great with first meetings, okay?"

"I'm sorry," Anna said into the crook of her elbow. "You probably think I'm totally crazy right now, don't you?"

"Well, yes," Elsa admitted. She really wanted to get the girl's face out of her arms, but she'd already missed her shoulder and she didn't want to send the wrong message by groping her blindly. She rubbed the nub of bone again. "But I kind of like crazy."

At this, Anna was finally encouraged enough to peek out of her arms.

"Really?"

Elsa bit her lip in frustration. Normally **she** was the shy one who didn't have to make conversation. She was just **not** good at this.

"Yes, really. Normally people try to take care of me like I'm made of glass or something, which means that I end up listening to people trying too hard to take care of what they say to make sure they don't offend me or something. It's… refreshing, in a way? To have someone just say the whole truth and be honest about what they think without trying to mince their words."

"Sorry," Anna said meekly. She brushed her hair back, flustered and embarrassed. "I just made things super-awkward, didn't I?"

"It's fine," Elsa said, relieved that the other girl seemed to have recovered. She was terrible at this emotional stuff. "Just, don't go all turtle on me again, okay? And, if you really want to just talk, please don't get all embarrassed again."

"Sorry," Anna repeated.

An awkward silence descended on both of them as they tried to think of something to say. Anna was struggling not to reveal just how much she knew about the blonde, and Elsa was trying to figure out how to ask the barista just how much she'd researched her without the latter getting embarrassed again. The silence stretched out until Anna noticed one of Elsa's notebooks, sitting amongst the pile still stacked on the table.

"What's that?"

Elsa jumped, startled out of her thoughts by Anna's voice.

"Sorry, what?"

Anna leaned over to get a better view.

"On the back of your notebook. It looks like... doodles? Stars? Hexagons? Snowf-"

Elsa's hand slammed down on the notebook. Or, she tried to. Instead, her hand caught the lip of her cup, tipping it over and causing iced coffee to splash across the table. Anna flinched back, startled, as Elsa, ignoring the coffee, tried to desperately shove all of her books back into her satchel. However, in her panicked rush, her normal grace was replaced by a reckless flurry of limbs, throwing three of her books to the ground as they missed her bag completely. Frustrated, Elsa tossed her satchel to the ground and scrambled on the ground, trying to find her books. Her panicked flailing stopped when she felt Anna's hand resting on her shoulder. Gently, Anna pressed Elsa's books into her hands.

"I'm sorry," Anna apologised. "I didn't realise it was something personal."

Realising what a spectacle she'd just made and suddenly all too aware that she was currently kneeling on the ground with her darkened sunglasses knocked lopsided, Elsa meekly took the books and pushed them into her bag. She stood up and fixed her sunglasses, trying not to show how embarrassed she was. Anna helped her to her feet and handed Elsa her cane, trying to hide her worry and confusion. Elsa let out a deep breath.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to react so… you know. I'm just not ready to share something like that. Sorry."

"No, it's nothing to apologise for," Anna assured the blonde. She raised her hands to hold the blonde's own, before rethinking it and letting her arms drop back to her sides. "I shouldn't have intruded. It was my fault."

Elsa shook her head.

"That still doesn't excuse my behaviour. I shouldn't have reacted like that. It was just, an impulse, and a bad one at that."

They both stood there, awkward once more. Anna shifted her weight from one foot the other, biting her lip, and Elsa's fingers tightened on the strap of her satchel. Finally, Anna chuckled at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

"Looks like we both made a bit of a fool of ourselves today, huh?"

At this, Elsa couldn't help but giggle weakly as well.

"I guess we're both just really bad with people."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Anna said, smiling slightly. "I think that we both learnt new things about each other, and really what more can you expect from a first meeting? I think this all went rather well."

Elsa laughed a little at that.

"Well, aren't you the optimist."

"I'd have to be," Anna replied, her smile widening. "If I wasn't, then I wouldn't be able to ask for your phone number after all this."

Elsa had to smile at the cheerfulness in Anna's voice.

"And what makes you think I'll give it to you?" Elsa asked, now teasing a little.

"Oh, I don't know," Anna said dramatically, relaxing now that she was reassured Elsa didn't think of her as a freak of nature. "Because you need someone to tell you how amazing you are and talk about how much she wants to get to know you?"

Elsa burst out laughing at that.

"When you put it that way," she said, grinning and reaching into her satchel. She felt around for the little sleeve with her notepad with the pen clipped on. Pulling it out, she slowly and awkwardly wrote down her phone number, doing her best to not accidentally overlap the numbers. She tore out the page and handed it to Anna, who did her best to disguise her ecstatic smile.

"Call me, okay?" Elsa said, amused by the joy radiating off of the other girl. She could practically feel her buzzing.

"Of course I will!" Anna exclaimed. "But, when should I do it? Are you busy later tonight? When do you do your homework? Do you even have homework? What am I talking about, you're doing an Architecture major, of course you've probably got loads of work to do. Did I just say that you're taking an Architecture major? Oh gosh, now I probably look even more like a stalker to you. Wait, what?"

Elsa laughed.

"Anna, relax. Just call me at eight tonight. I feel like we have lots to talk about." Elsa blushed, embarrassed by her sudden brazenness. "Do you really think I'm gorgeous?"

"Um," Anna stammered, looking like a very ginger goldfish as her mouth flapped for the words that her brain just wasn't sending. "Uh, well, that is-"

"I'm teasing, Anna," Elsa said with a laugh. Shifting her satchel to the other shoulder and making sure her glasses were on straight, Elsa started tapping her way back to the door, only to be pleasantly surprised when she felt Anna take her elbow and gently guide her. Elsa bit down on her lower lip to hide the stupid grin trying to form on her face, unaware that Anna was beaming unrestrainedly.

When Anna opened the door for her, Elsa placed a hand to her chest in mock surprise.

"Well, it seems that I've found my knight in shining armour. Thank you, good sir, for saving me from the tyranny of closed doors."

Anna blushed, wondering if her act of chivalry had been a bit too blatant, and the colour in her cheeks only deepened when Elsa groped about her neck to find Anna's chin. As soon as she had it securely in her grip, Elsa pulled Anna close to give her a light peck on the cheek.

"Well, talk to you later. Thanks for sitting with me today."

And then the blonde was off, her cane tapping in front of her as she slowly made her way back to her dorm, leaving Anna standing in the doorway with her face as red as her hair.

**To Be Continued**

* * *

A/N: This feels a little awkward, but first meetings are always tough to write. Hopefully it'll get smoother in future instalments. And yes, I'll definitely be continuing this when I have some time, but don't expect it to be any longer than four/five parts at most.


	2. Romp in the Snow

Rating: T

Warnings: fem!Slash, Nudity

Genre: AU, Friendship, Romance, Fluff, Humour

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All names mentioned do not represent the true persons. All brand names do not belong to the author. No copyright laws or personal privacy laws are intended to be infringed.

A/N: So it's been a while since I've touched this one, but I hope the wait's been worth the while! I haven't been updating for a while because I was off on a family vacation, so hopefully the other talented writers on FF kept your Elsanna cravings sated :P Enjoy!

Oh, and I've bumped up the rating due to slight nudity. And also because, according to my stats page, people seem to skip over things rated K+. Go figure, perverts! :P

* * *

Elsa and Anna's friendship was like a flower; the planting is a little awkward and messy, with dirt flying everywhere as the seed struggled to take root. However, once it was firmly planted, a little sunlight and water and a few months of dedicated work helped it to flourish.

Of course, there were little missteps along the way. Anna, enthusiastic and energetic, tended to let her emotions get the better of her logic and accidentally caused Elsa to retreat into herself by probing a bit too much and, from time to time, made little awkward errors like sending Elsa a text message over her phone. Elsa, unused to having friends and close human interaction in general, struggled to overcome her shyness and tried desperately to learn the rules that seemed to dictate the nature of friendship.

One of those rules? It was totally okay for friends to phone you at ungodly times if they felt like it.

Elsa groped for her phone that was blaring "Call Me Maybe" from its position on her bedside table. Anna had taken the time to personalize her ringtone, and, much to Elsa's horror, she now had to hear Carly Rae Jepsen about five times a day.

"What?" Elsa grumbled into her pillow, too sleepy to be more eloquent and too annoyed by teen singers to be polite.

"Heeeey Elsa~!" Anna sang back, cheerfully ignoring her friend's utterly disgruntled voice. "I've got something to tell you!"

"And you can't tell me in the morning?" Elsa mumbled around a mouthful of pillow.

"Nope!" Anna chirped merrily. "Because here's the thing. I was finishing my homework when I looked out my window and I saw-"

"A redheaded insomniac staring stupidly at her reflection, no doubt."

"Hey! I **actually** saw that the sky was awake, thank you very much."

"That's called the moon, Anna. It's a giant white glowing circle that comes out at night, I'm told. You'd think that you'd be more used to it since, you know, you're the one who can actually see it."

"See, this is how I know you're grumpy. You start making blind jokes."

"Of course I'm grumpy. You woke me up at, what, 3am, just to tell me that you could see the moon?"

"No, I woke you up to tell you that I saw the moon and realised that on a beautiful night like tonight, sleeping be a waste of perfectly good snow."

"… Snow?"

Even through the phone, Elsa could imagine the edges of Anna's lips sliding upwards as she grinned. Her fingers tingled at the memory of Anna's dimples, and Elsa's heart gave an extra thump as she remembered the warmth radiating off of the girl.

"Do you wanna build a snowman?"

And just like that, Elsa felt like she was being torn in half. On the one hand, it was _snow_. Snow was bad. Snow was cold. Cold was ice. Ice was _extremely_ bad.

But on the other hand, it was Anna.

Elsa sighed into her phone.

"Fine. I'll get dressed. You're just lucky I don't have any lectures in the morning. Where are you right now?"

"On your doorstep."

The reply was so immediate, so cheerfully delivered that it took a few seconds before the implications of her words hit Elsa with the force of a freight train.

"Anna," Elsa said, suddenly struggling to keep her breathing under control. "_Are you sitting outside my house?_"

"Yup. And if you don't come out in five minutes, I'm going in there and dressing you myself."

Sheer, absolute panic flooded Elsa at those words.

"Anna, _you can't see me like this_."

"What, do you sleep in an Easter Bunny suit or something?"

Frantically, Elsa groped around for other excuses as she threw herself out of bed, tripping over her feet as she rushed to her wardrobe.

"My parents are here! If they wake up, we're both dead!"

"What are you talking about? Your parents love me!"

"_Nobody loves anyone when they're woken up at 3am, Anna!_"

"You love me even though I woke you up at 2am." Anna pouted over the phone.

"I love you a little less right now." Elsa growled as she flung open her wardrobe. Her hands scrambled about as she looked for her sunglasses. Her hands closed around hard plastic and, relieved, she hastily jammed them on her face. She let out a sigh of relief as the familiar weight rested on her nose, the smooth edges pressing against her cheekbones, curved hooks curling around her ears. However, she couldn't relax just yet. Very much aware that Anna could make good on her threat to barge into her home, Elsa quickly dug through her wardrobe, trying to remember the order in which her shirts were hung and her pants were stacked. Even if you were blind, you could still feel the looks people gave you when you wore bright purple T-shirts with lime track pants.

"Time's up!" Anna's voice sang from Elsa's phone, which had been set on top of a stack of towels. "I'm coming in!"

Panicked, Elsa snatched up a bathrobe and clutched it tightly to her chest. She was sincerely regretting her decision to give Anna a key to her house, but after Anna had told her the code to Anna's apartment, reciprocity had demanded that Elsa match the gift with one of equal value. She heard the front door slam shut and the scuffling of light footsteps running up the stairs. Elsa grabbed her phone and hissed into it, hoping that Anna heard her before she could get to Elsa's room.

"Anna, wait! _I'm not wearing any clothes!_"

The last syllable had just passed through Elsa's lips when Anna kicked open Elsa's door. Elsa flinched behind her wardrobe door, trying to hide as much of herself behind it as possible. The bathrobe covered the essentials, but that still left a lot of skin exposed. Anna stood stunned in the doorway, and Elsa could tell by the lack of any noise that Anna could definitely see her.

A long silence fell upon the two girls as they froze in their respective positions, Elsa hiding behind flimsy wood with a robe held tightly to her chest and Anna standing dumbfounded as her eyes drank in the sight before her. Elsa's signature black sunglasses covered most of her face, but that was the only article of clothing the older girl was wearing. Her normally neatly braided hair was a huge tumble of golden waterfall hanging over her shoulders, an unkempt mess that somehow managed to be radiantly beautiful. Anna's eyes traced Elsa's smooth shoulders, her bare legs, dainty feet, slender back, curvaceous hips and… Anna gulped. Elsa was covering her front protectively, but her sides and back was bare, and Anna could make the hint of a soft, smooth, white globe of flesh where outrageously long leg met heavenly hip.

It took all of Anna's self-control to tear her eyes away from Elsa. She'd made it clear that she liked the other girl, but Elsa had yet to reciprocate her feelings behind friendship, and you did _not_ check out your mates.

"So, uh, this, well, this is unexpected. I think that I'll just, uh, wait outside. Not, outside _outside_, just in the living room. Sorry. I didn't mean to, you know, um, come in like that. Well, I did, but I wouldn't if I'd know that you, um, weren't decent yet. I should have assed-_ asked_, I should have asked! I'll shut up and wait outside now."

Anna scurried from the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Her cheeks were bright red, her face was flushed, and she felt like she was going to faint. Oh _god_. She'd just seen Elsa almost entirely nude. She needed to lie down. Groggily, Anna made her way to the couch.

Back in her room, Elsa rested her head against her wardrobe with a sigh. This friendship thing was harder than she'd thought. Just when she thought she was getting the hang of it, Anna had to be fun and spontaneous and do something like this.

* * *

When Elsa finally came out, Anna was sitting unhappily on the sofa, swinging her feet. Still mortified by her error, the redhead didn't have the heart to tell the other girl that her bright orange scarf clashed horribly with her green longcoat.

"So, a snowman, right?" Elsa said firmly, having decided that the easiest option would be to pretend that nothing had happened. Anna managed to not vocalise her relief at her friend's proposed solution.

"It doesn't have to be a snowman," Anna replied, snatching up her beanie. Settling the fluffy hat on her head, Anna grinned broadly at Elsa. "We can build whatever you want!"

"The thing is, Anna," Elsa mumbled as she pulls on her boots. "I've never actually done this before. I have absolutely no clue how to build anything from snow. I don't know what anything's supposed to look like."

Anna tried to not bury her face in her hand as Elsa's confession struck her. This was worse than the time that Anna had proposed going to the art museum together. How could she keep forgetting that Elsa was blind? The obvious things were easy to remember and accommodate (don't expect Elsa to run down stairs, remember that her hearing is better than yours, never ask Elsa what she thinks of your new dress, etc.), but it was the little things like this that always caught Anna out.

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to teach you!" Anna said after a moment of silently beating herself up while Elsa took her cane from its hook. "It'll be a learning experience, and god knows how much you love those."

"Having an appreciation for fine literature and good music doesn't make me an antisocial loser who can't have fun, Anna," Elsa countered, slightly miffed at Anna's playful accusation. The two of them, now outside the house, could speak freely and as loudly as they wanted. "It just means that I'm a civilised being who has transcended you and your barbarian kin."

"'my barbarian kin'?" Anna echoed. "You'd better not be talking about the guys from my mountain biking club!"

"Of course I am! Who else would be insane enough to enjoy those, those railroad-riding monstrosities of death?"

"Elsa, rollercoasters are _fun_."

"_Louis Armstrong_ is fun, Anna. _Reading_ is fun. Puking whatever sandwich you had for lunch all over the floor is _not_ fun."

"I didn't puke," Anna grumbled as she pushed open the gate to the park, holding it open for Elsa. "I merely recycled."

The snow that Anna had promised was indeed falling gently from the sky, and it had already settled several inches thick on the ground. At this hour, the park was utterly deserted, and the only company the two friends had as they trekked their way to where the snow was thickest were the lampposts, the stars and the moon shining brightly above them.

Excited, Anna dragged Elsa to a fresh pile of snow, gloved hand tightly clutching gloved hand.

"Here!" Anna proclaimed, and she promptly shoved Elsa's hand into the snow. Elsa gave a highly undignified squawk in surprise, and tried to pull her hand away. Anna rolled her eyes in response. "It's just snow, Elsa, geez."

"There's no such thing as 'Just snow'", Elsa mumbled. "Snow is evil."

"It's not that bad." Anna chided. "Snow's like really cold play-doh that falls from the sky. You can make so much from it!"

"Some of us have very limited imaginations," Elsa said dryly. What the hell was play-doh?

Anna snorted at that.

"Elsa, you're taking an Architecture major, and you're saying you don't have imagination? Look, I'll show you." Anna took both of Elsa's hands in hers, arms reaching around the other girl's waist to grip her wrists. Elsa shifted, uncomfortable at the sudden closeness as she felt Anna press into her from behind. "You just take a lump of snow, pack it really tightly together so that it holds its shape, and then you can mould it into whatever you want. If you're really ambitious, you make a little ball and then roll that in the snow so that more and more snow sticks onto it, making it bigger. You do that three times until you've got three big balls of different sizes, stick them on top of each other, and then ta-dah! You've got a snowman!"

Elsa didn't respond, far too concerned with the feeling of Anna's warm body resting against her back. Anna took a moment before she realised how closely together they were. Abruptly, she let go of Elsa's hands and hastily stepped back. Memories of smooth white skin flashed through the redhead's mind.

"I'll, uh, go start work on the snowman's torso. You just keep making that ball bigger. If you need anything, then, um, just shout, okay?"

Elsa nodded shyly, cheeks glowing as the blind girl blushed. She quietly set to work packing the snow tightly, hoping that Anna couldn't see her crimson face. Anna turned away, face just as red, and took out her embarrassment on the torso of their snowman, her ball crumpling into a flurry of white under the force of her shaking grip.

The two girls worked like that for a while, a warm but nervous silence descending upon them. Finally, Anna turned away from her ball (well, it was supposed to be a ball. Anna's nervousness combined with her fidgety fingers had somehow given her globe three corners) to check on how Elsa was doing. Elsa's head jerked upwards at the sound of Anna's footsteps, her boots crunching in the freshly fallen snow.

"How is it?" she asked, turning towards the noise. She was biting her lower lip in anxiety again, a habit she'd thought she'd lost when she was sixteen. Gulping, Elsa took a step to the side to show Anna the fruit of her labours.

"It's great!" Anna exclaimed, clapping her hands together. A bit too loudly.

Elsa's chin dipped in disappointment.

"It's terrible, isn't it?"

"No, of course not!" Anna protested loudly. She quickly stepped towards Elsa, hoping to console the older girl. "It's perfect! This will work out so well-"

The next thing Anna knew, she was sliding across the snow, having stepped on a sheet of ice just underneath the fluffy whiteness. Her arms pinwheeled as she struggled to gain her balance, twin braids streaming like ribbons of fire in the air. Elsa, unsure of what was happening, cocked her head to the side, just as Anna crashed right into her.

"Oof!" A puff of hot breath hung like mist in the cold air as Elsa was driven into a tree by the ginger-haired girl. The blonde slammed into the hard bark, not so much hurt by the impact as she was bewildered by the sudden warmth that had tackled her around the midriff. Elsa's head cracked against the wood as her neck whiplashed. "Ow."

Elsa uncertainly groped around her middle to grab the other girl.

"Anna? Anna, are you okay?"

The redhead didn't say anything, and instead burrowed her head closer to Elsa.

"Anna? What happened?"

"Please just let me die now," Anna mumbled, utterly mortified by her clumsiness. "I don't think I'll be able to face you for at least another year now."

And just like that, the atmosphere lightened. Elsa let out a small, tinkling laugh at the younger girl's dramatic shame, and Anna tried to dive deeper into Elsa's scarf in a futile attempt to escape from reality. Elsa managed to find Anna's back and she gently ran her hand up the younger's spine to rest in her hair.

"Oh, Anna." Elsa chuckled, stroking the auburn locks entangled in her fingers. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Let me die from embarrassment?" Anna suggested into Elsa's coat.

"If a blind girl has to catch you when you fall, there's really no hope for you at all, is there?" Elsa laughed.

"So do I get to die now?"

"Oh well," Elsa said, ignoring Anna's melodrama. "I guess I'll just have to stick around with you forever so that I can always be there to catch you."

At that, Anna finally peeked out of her hiding place in Elsa's embrace. Uncertainly, she looked up to see herself reflected in the dark lenses of Elsa's shades, and to see the slight smirk of the blonde, who smiled down at the younger girl.

"Really?" Anna breathed, hoping to the high heavens that she hadn't misheard.

"Really." Elsa confirmed. She gently untangled Anna's arms from around her waist and pushed away from the tree, wincing. "Well, now that I've got a lovely bruise waiting for me in the morning, I think we can call this a night. If I'd known snowman-building was this dangerous, I'd have avoided it for the rest of my life."

Anna laughed, feeling her heart soar with relief as she realised that Elsa wasn't just forgiving her for nailing the elder into a tree: Elsa was saying that everything, including the bedroom fiasco, wasn't anything to worry about, and that she'd always be there for the younger girl. She linked her fingers with the blonde's, smiling happily as she swung their arms cheerfully.

"Well, if snowman-building's too hardcore for little miss perfect, I guess we can always just go back to my place and have a cup of coffee instead." Anna teased.

Elsa made a face.

"You know I don't really like coffee. It's _way_ too bitter. There's only two reasons I drink the stuff, and the flavour isn't one of them. Can't we just get some hot chocolate instead?"

"If you insist," Anna chirped merrily. She led Elsa out of the park, a spring returning to her step. She glanced curiously at her friend. "So, why _do_ you drink coffee if you don't like it?"

Elsa shrugged as she tapped her cane from side to side. While she certainly trusted Anna not to let her slip on a puddle or stray onto the road, her knee still protested loudly at a memory from last week of a fire hydrant that Anna, distracted by the smell of éclairs wafting from the bakery, had neglected to mention.

"I need the energy," Elsa explained. "A lot of the time, I have to stay up late doing my homework or finishing the required chapters for that week. If I didn't have coffee, I'd barely be able to do half of the work I normally do."

"Sounds like someone's a caffeine junkie!" Anna sang as she danced around a frozen puddle. "And what's the other reason?"

Elsa grinned at the question. She clasped Anna's hand tighter, feeling the warmth of her fingers seep into her own cold ones.

"Well, I have to have _some_ excuse to visit Starbucks every day to see you, don't I?"

Anna blushed a bright red at that. Declining to answer, the sophomore pressed herself against Elsa, and the two walked to Anna's apartment for a 4a.m coffee side-by-side with their hands linking them tightly together.

When the sun rose and rays of light heralded the coming of morning, the new day found Elsa and Anna passed out on Anna's couch, Elsa reclining on the sofa cushions with Anna drooling on top of her, a mug rolling across the carpet.

* * *

**To Be Continued**

A/N: I'm not entirely happy with this, but I think that it's okay overall J It's tough getting back into writing after a break, but I think I'm getting my groove back! :D Anyway, leave a review if you could! If you can't, that's fine as long as you enjoyed this chapter!

Keep reading, keep writing, and keep being awesome everyone! :D


	3. One Winter's Day

Rating: T

Warnings: Mentioned Mature Content, fem!Slash

Genre: AU, Friendship, Romance, Fluff, Humour

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All names mentioned do not represent the true persons. All brand names do not belong to the author. No copyright laws or personal privacy laws are intended to be infringed.

A/N: Hey there everyone! Guess who's back? It's me, with another chapter of Café Liégeois! This one is literally going to be mindless fluff with some plot points hidden underneath all the sickening sweetness. Brownie points to whoever can find them!

Also, I got my first 'hate' review on my fic "Never Been Bothered", in which I basically got called a whole list of negative adjectives for daring to write Elsanna. Apparently, someone was really pissed off by the fact that he/she can't read warnings in the summary. So, to celebrate, I'm posting another chapter of AU Elsanna whilst cheerfully reminding everyone that even though they're not sisters here, they are in pretty much every other romantic Icest work. So here's to you, geekman2, you terrible jerk you! :D

Enough rambling from me. On to the story! Hope you enjoy!

**Update**: So on the advice of two awesome reviewers, I've made a few changes to the early dialogue to help with the flow better. Thanks to The Denominator for making me realise that there is a bit of info dumping and exposition in the early banter that made the dialogue awkward and clipped, and thanks to syuchang for pointing out that Norway is a part of Scandinavia, not separate from it, and that I'm apparently useless at research *hugs* I love you guys!

* * *

"Did you know that there's a city in Texas named after you?"

"In all honesty, Anna, I think that the city's name came first."

"You're also a spaceship in Xenosaga."

"I have no clue what that is."

"Ooh, you're also an asteroid!"

"Is that a comment on my weight?"

"Alternatively, your name's an acronym for the European League of Stuttering Associations."

"Frankly, I think that that's more your thing than mine."

"Fine, you can be the European Law Students' Association. I'd actually _love_ to see you in a suit yelling 'Objection!' at the judge."

"Anna," Elsa sighed, setting down her pencil for what felt like the fifth time that afternoon. "I know that I invited you to stay at my place while your parents are out the country-"

"Something that I still have trouble believing, since I know that you know that I know you don't like people snoring." Anna replied, not even looking away from the computer screen in front of her as she scrolled down the list of search results.

"You know what I mean," Elsa grumbled. She rubbed her temples in frustration, nails clicking against the plastic of her sunglasses. "The point is, I love having you here, and I'm proud that you've found out the power of Wikipedia, but I actually do need to work. Something I can't do if you feel the need to tell me about everything in existence named 'Elsa'."

"Pssh, please," Anna said, waving her hand dismissively. "I've seen you when you're focused on your work. I don't think that a Wookie beating a Na'vi to death with a Pokèball could break your concentration."

"… Wait, what?"

"Ugh. I can't believe you didn't understand a single one of those references. What are you, fifty? What have you been doing for the last twenty years, Elsa?"

"Debating on whether or not my sense of smell is stronger than my sense of hearing." Elsa snarked completely deadpan. She leaned back in her chair to stretch out her spine, letting out a groan of pleasure as she felt her vertebrae stretch. "Honestly, Anna, if I'd known what a geek you are, I'd have reconsidered renting 'Pride and Prejudice' for movie night."

"I'm a nerd, not a geek," Anna pouted.

"There's a difference?" Elsa teased, pushing her hair back and tying it into a ponytail. "Isn't that kind of like saying that you're column, not a pillar?"

"… Wait, what?"

"Never mind," Elsa sighed. "Architecture reference. Only _learned_ people would understand that one."

"Oh, I understood it all right," Anna said with a smirk. She clicked on a link, letting the pause stretch out for dramatic effect. "I just didn't think it was funny."

"You absolute brat," Elsa complained, tossing a scrunched-up blueprint at the back of Anna's head. It landed about five feet from Anna's desk. "To criticise my sense of humour after I've invited you into my home and fed you food off my table. Where did you grow up, in a stable?"

"Elsa, I'm not criticising your sense of humour!" Anna smirked as she opened another page. "I'm saying that it doesn't exist."

"You're lucky I love you, otherwise I'd be strangling you with my cane right about now." Elsa drawled.

"That would be tragic, wouldn't it? I can see it on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper right now: 'Beautiful College Student is Brutally Strangled to Death by Gorgeous Best Friend'."

"Actually, I was thinking more about your eulogy. 'Our dear departed Anna lived a long, happy, supernaturally clumsy life before she died of asphyxiation after pissing off the disabled'."

"Excuse me, but my life has _not_ been supernaturally clumsy!"

"You can say that as often as you want, but I still think that you're a spirit of bad luck or something. I absolutely refuse to believe that a normal human could turn a trip to the grocery store for milk into a domestic incident that requires three fire trucks, two ambulances and about three hours of wasted police time to settle."

"In my defence, that jerk was asking for it," Anna muttered unhappily, finger slamming on the mouse a bit harder than necessary. "Who the hell ogles at a blind girl anyway? That's just creepy."

"So you punched him with an onion into a shopping cart for looking at me? Aw, Anna, I didn't know you cared so much."

"I don't!" Anna flushed. "I mean, well, I do, but not like that! I'm just doing my civic duty! Not that being your friend's a duty! I love it! You're my best friend! That's what I was doing, I was doing a civic friend for my best duty! I mean, a friend duty for a civic best! Actually, I'm just going to shut up now."

"Oh Anna," Elsa sighed, getting up from her drawing table. She walked carefully over to where Anna sat at Elsa's study desk, redrawing the layout of her room with the additional bed in her head. When she successfully navigated her room and bumped into the back of Anna's chair, Elsa swooped down to hug her friend from behind, arms linking around the redhead's shoulders. Anna's cheeks burnt red as she felt a soft something (_two_ soft somethings) press into her shoulder-blades. "You're just too precious, you know that?"

"Hmmph!" Anna scoffed, covering up her embarrassment with an air of indignation. "When we first met, you said I was weirding you out."

"Anna, you _were_ weirding me out. I barely knew anything about you, and you could practically write my biography for me."

Anna winced internally at that. She had been so infatuated with Elsa at first sight that, in retrospect, she'd probably come across as a stalker, or at the very least a serious creep. But she didn't like to be reminded of that (especially since she wasn't entirely over her infatuation), so instead Anna turned the subject to the one topic that always guaranteed the sophomore's victory.

"I couldn't write your _entire_ biography! There were some things I didn't know then! Like how you always put your left boot on first, or the fact that you don't really like coffee, and how you prefer milk chocolate to dark. I also didn't know that you liked geometry that much, and that you can only draw when you press really hard with those thick pencils because otherwise you can't feel the indents. Oh, I also didn't know that you sleep in the nude!"

The words had the desired effect. Elsa flinched backwards, thankfully relieving Anna of the warm flesh pressing into her back (even though her heart whined at the loss of contact), and Anna saw in the screen's reflection Elsa was doing that lip-biting thing she did when she got nervous again.

"I _told_ you, Anna, that's just a pragmatism thing! For me, dressing takes a long time, and I get home really late normally, so by the time I take a shower I'm practically sleeping standing up! It's not like I've got a, a _fetish_, or anything!"

"If you say so," Anna sang teasingly. "But in all honesty, I think that, between the two of us, you're more likely to be the pervert. You're probably a voyeur as well."

It was moments like these that Anna loved the most. The moments when calm, refined, collected Elsa would dissolve into inelegant spluttering as her brain was fried but her mouth tried to talk anyways. These were the special, private moments that were reserved solely for Anna and Elsa's family, the moments that reminded Anna just how close the two had gotten over the past few months. They had come a long way from that first meeting on the hot summer's day.

"_Me!_ How could you even suggest… I've never even _thought_ of something like that! And that's not me being in denial! That kind of thing has _literally_ never passed through my mind before! Besides, it's physically impossible for me to be a voyeur! Voyeurism is defined, and I only know the definition because of a book, okay?! Anyway, it's defined as _watching_ people be… _intimate_, and in case you didn't notice, Anna, **_I can't see_**!"

"See, that's what makes it so much more erotic!" Anna said brightly, spinning the chair around to face the flustered Elsa. Anna leaned upwards so that she could whisper directly into Elsa's ear, her breath tickling that spot behind the cone which Anna knew made Elsa shiver. "You can't see it happen. You have to _imagine_ what it's like. You have to _listen_ to all the dirty sounds, all the little voices, all the loud noises. You have to _smell_ the pheromones in the air, the sweat, the bodily fluids. You have to _feel_ the arousal in the air, the heat that sinks into your skin and makes you sweat and hot and bothered-"

"Girls?" Elsa's father, Henry, poked his head in the doorway to check up on the two friends. At the sound of his voice, Elsa jumped, staggering away from Anna, her face flushed.

"Dad!"

"Hey Dad." Anna echoed comfortably, relaxing back into her chair, enjoying the sight of Elsa completely agitated and trying to quickly hide her blushing cheeks from her father, who was staring curiously into the room.

Henry grinned.

"Hello, Anna. I hope you're enjoying your stay here?"

"Of course I am!" Anna said brightly. "It's awesome here! You and Lilly are the best hosts ever, and I've got Elsa here to keep me busy. Isn't that right, Els?"

Anna couldn't completely stifle her giggles as Elsa rapidly tried to regain composure.

"Yeah, sure. Everything's fine, Dad."

Henry gave his daughter a curious look before wandering into the room.

"Well, we're going to have dinner soon, so I just wanted to check on what you two were up to. Whatcha doing, anyways?"

"Just, finishing up some homework, Dad," Elsa managed.

"_I_ am being a responsible young adult and conducting research!" Anna proclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air.

"Oh? What kind?"

"Nothing important," Elsa said dismissively. "Anna was just looking up all the different people, things and places that shared my name."

There was an awkward quiet that Elsa immediately identified as the silence that set in when the blind girl said something painfully obviously wrong, and now everyone else was trying to figure out how to break the news to her.

"Uh, Elsa?" Henry said, tapping the screen with his finger. "This is a Wikipedia page about suspension bridges in Panama."

Anna scratched the back of her head sheepishly.

"I got a little side-tracked."

* * *

"-and then I found five dollars." Anna finished from her perch atop the kitchen counter, watching Elsa's mom stir some herbs into the bolognaise sauce. Despite Anna's insistence that she could help, reminding everyone who would listen that she _was_ a barista, no one would allow Anna to help cook dinner or set the table. Anna mainly blamed Elsa for that, and tried not to think too much about how that china set must've cost.

"Unbelievable," Lilly said, adjusting the heat of her stove. "You know, most girls your age wouldn't spend their afternoons trying to find a violin's centre of gravity."

"I don't even _play_ the violin!" Anna complained. "I've always been all about sport, and action, and art! Music's never really been my thing."

"Then what were you doing at the orchestra's rehearsal, anyway?" Lilly dipped a teaspoon into her sauce and tasted it, before shaking her head and reaching for the salt shaker.

Anna scuffed her feet back and forth gloomily.

"It was _supposed_ to be a compromise. Elsa wanted to go to a Beethoven concert and I wanted to watch a movie, so we decided to go watch Aurora practice for the musical."

"'_supposed_' to be a compromise?" Lilly asked.

Anna grimaced.

"By the time we got there, most of the acting crew had already left. It was just the musicians staying behind to practice a couple pieces, so what was supposed to be a "Elsa and Me" bonding time turned into Aurora asking Elsa for advice on how to ask out Phillip for an hour while I got bored out of my mind."

"Someone asking _Elsa_ for dating advice?" Lilly laughed at that. "What on earth was Aurora thinking?"

"Not much, probably." Anna muttered.

Lilly shook her wooden spoon at the redhead who had started fiddling with the cookie tin.

"Be nice, Anna. Aurora's been having issues with insomnia for most of her childhood. And just because she likes talking about boys doesn't mean that she's unintelligent."

"I want to believe that, but it's kinda hard to believe. They're all the same, Snow and Aurora and Ella, always looking for their Prince Charming."

"I happen to know that there used to be a girl who thought like that," Lilly noted, checking on her spaghetti to make sure it hadn't been overcooked.

Anna flushed furiously at that.

"Well, I grew out of it, okay? I just want then to realise that not all boys are what they seem. Besides, why ask _Elsa_ about boy troubles? That's like asking her if she likes the colour of your dress!"

"Not everyone knows that Elsa is a lesbian, honey," Lilly chided as she hefted the pot over to the sink. As she poured out the steaming hot water, taking care not to lose any stray strands of spaghetti, the older woman looked curiously at Anna. "And what about you, Anna?"

Startled, Anna dropped the biscuit tin, an Oreo clutched guiltily in her fingers. She quickly shoved the treat behind her back.

"What about me?"

Lilly smiled, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you still waiting for your Prince Charming, or have you found a special someone already? Don't tell me that a cute girl like you hasn't been asked out yet. You're in university! This is that troubled time which gives parents everywhere heart attacks and makes them scrounge through their kids' bins looking for condoms."

Anna groaned at that.

"Thank you so much for that image, Lilly. It's like you and Elsa are in a contest to see who can make me die of embarrassment first."

Lilly let loose a tinkling laugh at that.

"In all seriousness, Anna, aren't you seeing anyone? Surely there's _someone_ you fancy?"

Pale white skin and thick black sunglasses flashed through Anna's mind. She blushed, and hastily shoved her stolen Oreo into her mouth to give her time to think.

"There _might_ be someone…" Anna mumbled around a combination of cookie and cream.

"Oh?" Lilly asked as she began dividing spaghetti into four bowls.

Anna gulped loudly, swallowing her nervousness alongside her confection.

"It's kind of awkward for me, to be honest, because I always thought that I was straight but…"

"Oh, so you've fallen for a woman?" Lilly smiled at the thought as she spooned sauce over the spaghetti.

"Well, yes and no. I fell for her at first, when I didn't really know her, which kinda makes it a shallow infatuation, you know what I mean? But then I got to know her, and then it wasn't really like falling in love as it was just beginning to really appreciate her as a person. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I think so, but I'm enjoying watching you squirm, so why don't you elaborate a bit more."

Anna sighed and buried her face into her hands.

"It's like, the more I get to know her, the less it becomes a case of 'Ohmigosh, she's totally gorgeous, please let me love you' and more like 'You know, we're really good friends. I could see myself spending the rest of my life with you'. Do you get it?"

"Of course," Lilly said as she sprinkled parmesan cheese over the bowls. "That's how Henry and I got married. We were friends for a long time, and we'd both seen a lot of people during high school and university. But afterwards, we ended up working at the same company and we realised that, sure, short relationships and a couple flings were fun, but all the people we'd thought we'd been in love with were all just fleeting fancies. The only people who'd stuck with us through all those years were each other. And so, we realised that marrying each other, marrying our best friend, well, it'd give us a much better foundation to build our relationship on than just 'love at first sight'."

"Yeah… That makes sense." Anna brightened at that, and she leapt off the counter to give Elsa's mother a huge hug. "Thanks for the advice, Lilly!"

Smiling, Lilly hugged Anna back.

"It's nothing, dear. Now," she pushed Anna back so that she could grip the redhead by the shoulders. "When do you plan to confess to Elsa?"

Lilly wished she had a camera to record Anna's reaction. Confusion, then shock, then mortification, and finally embarrassment all flashed across Anna's face. The sophomore girl stumbled backwards, and her hands flailed as she tried to push herself away from Lilly, trying to retreat.

"Wait, what? I didn't- How did you know? Not that you're _right_, because, god, that would be weird, and- never mind. I don't want to know what gave you that idea, the idea that I could actually l-l-lo-_like_ Elsa! I mean, what am I saying, of _course_ I **_like_** Elsa, but I don't _like-__**like**_ her, if you know what I mean! Shut up stupid, _duh_ she knows what you mean, she's the one that gave you all this advice! God, I'm such an idiot! Wait, did I just say that out loud?"

"Anna," Lilly said pleasantly, placing a firm hand on the hyperventilating ginger's shoulder. "Please, don't insult my intelligence. You just gave me this entire speech about how you fell in love with someone, and then you became best friends with that person, and now you've realised that you can spend the rest of your life with this person because you've come to know them better. More than that, your response to my comment about marrying your best friend was overwhelmingly positive. In the past couple of months, you've gone from being an absolute stranger to practically a member of this family. Elsa told us all about how you approached her first, and how you seemed to know a lot about her already. She's also mentioned how the two of you have gotten to know each other a lot, and how you're practically best friends. Furthermore, as I'm sure you've noticed, Elsa doesn't really have a lot of close friends. She's always scared about meeting new people because she's insecure and worried about a lot of things, her sexuality the least of them. So for her to completely embrace you, well, it says a lot."

"It does?" And Anna sounds so insecure, so small, so lost that Lilly's heart breaks slightly, but the hopeful look in Anna's eyes helps mend the little break with an overwhelming affection.

"Honey, Elsa isn't good with people. But she's embraced you as her best friend, someone she's only met a few months ago. Furthermore, when she's not talking about her work or about her worries, she's always talking about you. And the things she says. Gosh, it's so endearing to see _Elsa_ of all people gush."

"She gushes about _me_?"

"Anna, honey, I once sat through an entire dinner listening to Elsa go on and on about your dimples. Trust me, she's interested."

Anna took a deep breath to calm her thumping heart, and she wasn't sure if her face was still burning red from embarrassment or if it was from sheer, unadulterated joy.

"Well, well, _wow_. I don't know what to say."

"How about 'Do I still call you Lilly or is there a special way to address my mother-in-law?'"

"Oh _god_."

"Please don't pass out. I've made enough spaghetti for all of us and I hate having leftovers."

"_Elsa_?!"

"That is correct, yes."

"I was always kinda interested, but you're saying that she _reciprocates_?"

"I did mention something along those lines, yes."

"I mean, it's totally understandable for _me_ to fall for _her_, because, I mean, she's like perfection."

"Outside of being distant and completely incapable of understanding that I don't need anything for Mother's Day, I suppose."

"But how on earth could she fall for an absolute, coffee-loving, nerdy klutz?!"

* * *

"I can't believe that you fell for an absolute, coffee-loving, geeky klutz."

"She's a nerd, Dad, not a geek. Apparently, there's a difference."

Henry sat with his daughter in the lounge, both enjoying the warmth of the blaze crackling cheerfully in the fireplace. Elsa was sketching in her notepad again, and Henry resisted the urge to see which dream she was doodling down this time. Instead, he recalled the conversation he'd had with his wife earlier, as both had agreed to confront the two girls on their feelings for each other, and to give both advice on how to deal with the changes to their relationship.

Henry glanced over to Elsa, who was flicking her pencil back and forth across the page. Her brow was furrowed in deep concentration, and her strokes were strong and forceful with intent. This was one of the few times when Elsa allowed her passion to get the better of her, Henry supposed, the few times when Elsa would draw without pausing to think about how the images would appear to others. So long as she could trace her finger across the lines pressed into the page later and remember the images, Elsa was content.

The bearded man searched about for some advice to bestow upon his daughter, but a combination of a few cups of red wine and several months of having to reassure Elsa that Anna wouldn't respond to Elsa's feelings by running away to another state had left him drained of all wisdom. Finally, Henry sighed and dragged his hands over his face.

"Just make sure that she's the one who has the baby."

"Okay, Dad."

**To Be Continued**

* * *

A/N: Whew, that was fun! This one was meant to be mostly just humour and fluff, because I need something light-hearted before I get to work on the tough angst waiting for me in my other works. Hope you guys enjoyed this one! Till next time, folks!


	4. Zero Preparation

Rating: T

Warnings: fem!Slash

Genre: AU, Friendship, Romance, Fluff, Humour

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All names mentioned do not represent the true persons. All brand names do not belong to the author. No copyright laws or personal privacy laws are intended to be infringed.

A/N: So guess what everyone? This is the third-last chapter of Café Liégeois! WOOHOO! Almost there! :D

Thanks for sticking with me through all of this, and thanks for all your support. In this chapter, we'll finally figure out the answers to the questions that those of you who actually cared about the plot have no doubt been asking! (There's some fluff in here as well for those of you who don't really care about what plot there is so long as it's Elsanna :P)

So, without further ado, let's go! Hope you enjoy! ^.^

* * *

When Elsa and Anna officially announced that they were a couple, there was much squealing and shouted questions as their friends had crowded around them, desperate for the details. They had been hungry for tales of swooning courtship and romantic confessions after a day filled with event after event, culminating in a heartfelt kiss beneath the moonlight. It was universally agreed that it would be Elsa who would timidly invite Anna to the park, where she would stumble over her tongue as she tried to convey the depth of her emotions, before Anna took control and, after placing a finger on the blonde's lips, would simply say 'I know' before leaning in to kiss the elder girl in the glow of the full moon.

Of course, as most speculation and rumour often is, the truth had been very different.

The day hadn't been very different from most days. Elsa and Anna, exhausted after a long day of snowman-building, had been perched on the front door of Elsa's house. Winter break would be over in a week, and the two would return to university, with Anna going back to her own home for the new semester. The afternoon had been gloomy, with grey clouds hanging heavily in the sombre sky, promising heavy snowfall later, with nary a glimmer of sunlight in sight, never mind the glow of the moon. Lilly had left out a tray with a mug of hot chocolate for Elsa and a cup of coffee for Anna, and a plate of freshly microwaved s'mores to round out the snack. The two had sat in silence, weary from their day of play, and simply sipped at their respective drinks, watching their regiment of snowmen standing in the backyard.

Anna's mind had been filled with Lilly's advice. Elsa's mother was a wise woman with wise words, and Anna couldn't help but feel a bit more confident knowing that she had Lilly's full support. A tingly warmth was spreading through the ginger, and she didn't think that the coffee was the cause. She wriggled her toes happily.

After a moment of deep thought, Anna had looked towards Elsa, getting ready to speak. Her breath had hung in the air between them in a fine mist as the younger, her speech planned out, prepared herself.

"Elsa?"

"Hmm?" the blonde had turned towards her, a sign of politeness the blind girl had learnt from a young age. Elsa's head had been cocked to the side in curiosity. "What is it?"

"I was just thinking… Well, I know we haven't known each other for very long. It's only been a few months, and there's a lot we still have to learn about each other, but we've gotten really close during that time. I mean, I'm staying at your house for winter break! Isn't that a little crazy?"

"Well, I suppose-" Elsa had begun, but Anna, afraid that she'd lose her spot in her speech if she stopped, had barrelled on, the words tumbling out now.

"Exactly! But, here's the thing. We've only known each other a short while, but in that short while I've become closer to you than I have to anyone else in my entire life. It sounds a little weird, but it's true! So, I was just thinking, if you wanted to-"

"My dad thinks we should date."

"-I mean, you don't _have_ to, it's totally up to- Wait, what?"

"My dad thinks we should date," Elsa had repeated, her lips curling into that satisfied smirk as she'd rejoiced in her ability to bring Anna's motor mouth to a sudden halt, even now after several months together.

Anna had blinked, her mouth working as it tried to continue with Anna's speech, only to find that the words had evaporated from the redhead's brain. After a few amusing seconds of Anna mimicking a goldfish, the sophomore had finally pulled together a coherent thought and had spoken in an embarrassingly squeaky voice.

"And what do you think?"

Elsa had considered it for maybe half a second before replying.

"Like you said, Anna, we haven't known each other for very long. I don't normally get close to people; normally, I keep my distance. I don't know why I didn't do the same with you. I mean, when we first met and I thought that you were crazy, I was definitely considering it, just going along with you for a while and waiting for you to get bored of quiet, emotionally-stunted me. But, well, I just couldn't. Even though I tried, you were just too magnetic a personality for me to let you slip by. So, yeah, I think that we should date, even if it's only for a short while, just to see. I mean, I've never really done this kind of thing before, but I know how it works, and I think that I'd like it if we could share that kind of relationship. What about you?"

And then Anna, of course, had forgotten that she was supposed to be miffed about her lost speech and had ecstatically replied in some form of overjoyed gibberish before throwing herself into Elsa's arms and had passionately kissed the blonde.

Their first kiss hadn't been a good one, Elsa remarked to their friends later whilst Anna blushed and tried to camouflage against the wallpaper in the background. It had been clumsy, as the semi-experienced Anna had energetically moved her lips against Elsa's, whilst the blind girl, who had been going for more of a peck, had suddenly found her face being assaulted by an overwhelming amount of Anna. Also, because Anna was hyperactively enthusiastic and Elsa couldn't see, they hadn't been able to gauge distance properly, meaning that their teeth had clacked together and Anna's nose had bumped into Elsa's, causing her sunglasses to tip and jab Anna sharply in the eye.

What others had assumed to be a movie-like moment of romance had instead culminated with Elsa frantically rushing into the house calling for help whilst Anna had sat on the porch rubbing her sore nose and blinking back tears from her painfully watering eye.

But there was no need to worry, Elsa told their amassed friends, placing her and Anna's linked hands on top of the table for all to see. After that initial mishap, the two had made _plenty_ of attempts to get better.

Their dramatic announcement ended shortly after that, with Anna shoving the smirking blonde in embarrassment, accidentally knocking over Elsa's super-sweetened coffee and causing it to spill all over the tablecloth and, more importantly, Jasmine's lap.

Any thoughts of romance ended there as the amassed girls rushed to look for ice or to hold Jasmine's hand as she hissed in pain.

* * *

As with all loving relationships, Anna and Elsa's romance was not without its fair share of squabbles. Most of the time, it was over little things, the kind of things that they would bicker over back when they were friends (Anna trying to explain that Twilight, for all its faults and detractors, was still an iconic piece of modern culture and made for decent reading, whilst Elsa hotly rejected it as a form of literature, claiming that the so-called book was little more than poorly chosen and badly arranged words vomited onto pages by a creepy woman-child who was far too obsessed with her own wish fulfilment), or the sorts of domestic issues that would plague any pair of lovers during their early days before they learnt to adapt (there had been a memorable duel of sound as both Anna and Elsa had childishly turned their argument over their preferred musical tastes into an all-out war, as both increased the volume of their speakers, resulting in Beethoven's 5th Symphony wrestling with pulsing dubstep at 4am). These little moments of conflict, reasonable debate to passionate warfare, were, though serious at the time, forgotten after a good night's sleep, and in the morning Elsa would open her door and be violently embraced by a fervently apologising sophomore, or Anna would arrive at her morning class to find the blonde sheepishly standing in front of the lecture hall, coffee of truce in hand. It was moments like these that made a relationship all the stronger, as it reaffirmed the shared belief that, no matter their differences, they would find a way to accommodate for each other and make their love ever stronger.

And then, there were these fights. The fights that resulted in a temporary hiatus as both sides decided to take some time away from each other, lest the other's continued presence drove them to another bout of conflict that would end with both in tears. These were the fights that caused doubt to build, and would make both question their decision to commit to a serious relationship as they looked sadly at the other's retreating form. These were the fights that would make or break their romance.

In the beginning, it had started with something small, as such debacles often do. Anna had merely wanted to see Elsa's face without the obscuring sunglasses, to gaze into unseeing eyes and witness one of the blonde's most well-hidden vulnerabilities. For the ginger, it had merely been an acknowledgement of their growing relationship, a physical gesture that the two had become closer.

"It's just a fun little trust exercise," Anna had said. "You know, like when we were still awkwardly trying to become friends and I let you hold my face in your hands to feel all my expressions. Just something that lets us show a little more vulnerability, so that we can both see each other at our strongest and our weakest."

"No, Anna," Elsa had replied, laughing at first as she'd reached forward and, after cupping the younger girl's chin, reaching upwards gently to tweak Anna's nose affectionately, fingers ghosting over freckled skin.

But as time went by, and Anna repeatedly asked if Elsa's couldn't just take her sunglasses off, just once, in the privacy of either of their bedrooms, Elsa's response had gone from laughter to smiles to frowns to exasperation to outright denial. Anna, refusing to give in once her competitive nature was awoken, and frustrated by Elsa's refusal to give a proper reason for her denial, began to ask ever more frequently, her requests going from monthly to every fortnight to weekly to biweekly to daily.

"But _why_?" Anna complained one day, the heart she had been tracing on the coffee's creamy surface left unfinished as the redhead got up from the kitchen counter to confront the blonde who was sitting in her armchair. "Look, if it's just because you're self-conscious about your blindness, and I'm not saying that you _should_ be self-conscious because I think you're gorgeous no matter _what_ you think about yourself, then just say so! Then maybe we can work on improving your self-confidence or whatever. Just tell me what the problem is so that we can work on finding a solution! That's how relationships _work_! We share everything, our hopes _and_ our fears, so that we can help each other no matter what comes up!"

"Will you just stop _asking_, Anna?" Elsa shot back, slamming her book down in frustration. "I told you, I just don't want to take off my glasses, okay? Now will you _please just let it go?!_ Didn't someone ever teach you that it's rude to pry?"

"Someone also once told me that relationships can only work if they're built on mutual trust," Anna had countered, refusing to give in this time as she had on every other occasion. "What are you so scared of? What could be so bad about your eyes? You told me yourself that you were just born blind, it's not like you have some terrible burn scars or something that you don't want to show the world!"

"There is _nothing_ wrong with my eyes!" Elsa shouted angrily, the hairs on her neck prickling defensively as she spun around in her chair, head snapping in the direction of Anna's voice. "I just don't want to take off my glasses, okay? Is that really so hard to understand?!"

"Yes!" Anna shouted. "Because you won't give me a reason why! I know pretty much _everything_ embarrassing about you, and you know everything embarrassing about me! How bad could this be, really? It's just taking off your sunglasses! That's like, _nothing_, compared to some of the things we know about each other! You think that it'll really compare to the fact that you sleep in the nude, or that I get gassy when I'm really nervous? What could be so bad about it?!"

"There's _nothing_ bad about it!" Elsa practically roared. "My eyes are _perfectly_ fine! They just don't _see_. Okay? That's my big secret. I'm scared to show you my eyes because I'm embarrassed that I can't see. Are we done?"

"No, we're not, because I can tell you're lying!" Anna threw up her hands in frustration. "How are we supposed to strengthen our bond if you won't trust me? I can't even look at you without feeling this _gap_ between us! Because every time I look at you, all I can ever see is myself staring stupidly back at me in those damn dark lenses!"

"Then _don't_!" Elsa spat, anger and fear overriding her rational and cautious nature. "_Don't_ look at the lenses, _don't_ look at yourself and _don't look at me!_"

Silence hung in the air as those last words cracked sharply, thickening the air with their sheer hostility. Elsa was breathing heavily, and she was aware of the blood pulsing behind her eyelids, behind damned eyes that had no need of the precious life liquid that ran through them. Her skull was pounding with pent-up fury and desperation, anger at Anna for prying, anger at herself for being too much of a coward to tell her girlfriend the truth, just… anger at the world for all that it had done to her.

In that silence, though, Elsa heard something. A sniffle. A little hiccup. And she realised that Anna was crying.

Anna was crying, but she was too brave, too angry, too full of stupid self-righteous pride to let Elsa know just how much her words had hurt the younger girl. But even Anna (brave Anna, strong Anna) couldn't hide the sounds of her sorrow. It's an easy thing to wipe away tears, but much harder to stop the sobs that accompany them.

"All right," and it broke Elsa's heart to hear Anna sound like that, her voice thick with emotion, but still trying so hard to appear strong. She heard a snuffle and realised that Anna was wiping angrily at her face, trying to rid herself of tears that the blonde couldn't see anyways. Because Anna hated seeming weak. "Okay then. You've made your point. I won't pry. I won't ask again. I won't even look. In fact, if that's the way you want it, I won't even speak. I'll just, I'll just sit near you, and I won't touch you, or talk to you, or ask you to take off your sunglasses. It'll be just like I'm not there, and you can pretend that you're alone. That's what you want, isn't it? To just be left alone. Well, fine. I'll let you pretend to be alone. Actually, why don't we just go the whole way and let you be alone for real? No annoying Anna, always asking about the sunglasses. No irritating Anna, always asking you to justify yourself. No stupid Anna, pretending to know about love. No, no Anna at all. Maybe that'll make you happy for once. Because lately, whenever I'm here, all we seem to do is just fight."

"Anna…" Elsa began, hating the girl for making her sound and feel so desperate and needy, hating herself for driving the one person she could honestly call 'friend' away.

"No, it's fine," and now Elsa could hear Anna stamp towards the kitchen, could hear the swish as Anna slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll just show myself out, shall I? No need for you to bother yourself with Anna anymore. I'll just," and here, Anna choked, Elsa could hear the girl choke on the thick lump forming in her throat. Anna cleared her throat, coughing loudly. "I'll just grab my stuff and leave."

If Elsa had been better with people, she would have called out to Anna as the girl left the room. She would have called out to her, maybe say something clever and piercing that would make the redhead stop and hesitate, maybe even come back.

If Elsa had been stronger, she would have stood up from the chair and gone to Anna as the girl opened the door to the house, calling out to her. She would have yelled out her name and, when the redhead turned back, she would have apologised for what she'd said, promised that she didn't mean it, hugged the younger girl tight and kissed her until both their lips were numb and swollen.

If Elsa had been braver, she would have gotten up and run to Anna, blindness be damned, rushing to stop the girl as she walked out onto the porch. She would have grabbed the redhead's arm and spun her around and kissed her with all the love that Elsa was so bad at expressing in words, showing her just how much she meant to her, how much she loved her. Then, with firm (well, maybe trembling) fingers, Elsa would have taken off her large, face-concealing, eye-covering sunglasses and bared herself before the younger girl, showing her the deepest, darkest secret that Elsa had.

If only Elsa was better with people, if only Elsa was stronger, if only Elsa was braver… but Elsa had never been any of those things. Elsa had always been horrible with other people. Elsa had always been weak. Elsa had always been a coward.

Anna left. Elsa sat in her chair and listened to her go.

**To Be Continued**

* * *

A/N: I can already feel all the flames in the comments section as people scream at me for deceiving them into believing that this will all just be cutesy fluff. Better get the fire extinguisher and the burn medicine ready…

Honestly, though, I promise that this story _will_ have a happy ending. I couldn't bear to make this end on a downer. We've only got two chapters left after this, and I'll work my ass off to make sure that they're damn happy ones. Accept my oath and apology?

So, anyways, I hope you enjoyed this (somehow). Please don't forget to leave a review if you have the time! If you don't, well, I love you for taking the time to read this anyway! Until next time! Enjoy the first cliffhanger I've ever thrown at someone! Catchya later! :D


	5. Explanations

Rating: T

Warnings: fem!Slash

Genre: AU, Friendship, Romance, Fluff, Humour

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. All names mentioned do not represent the true persons. All brand names do not belong to the author. No copyright laws or personal privacy laws are intended to be infringed.

A/N: Hey everyone! Guess what? It's finally update time! And just in time for Elsanna week! Woohoo! Judging by the number of you screaming at me in the comments to update already, I guess you've been waiting a while for this. So, sorry about the delay. Hopefully this chapter will make it up to you guys, and I'm trying to compensate for the wait by making it extra-long (a bit too long...)! It's the second-to-last chapter, and it's finally time to find out what Elsa's hiding (for realises this time).

I'd also like to give a shout-out to PazGranger and yoyoviki, two amazing people who've done some great artwork for this fic. Check them out on deviantArt and Tumblr to see the masterpieces they've created for Café Liégeois!

Another shout-out to AnonElsa, a writer on FictionPress who wrote the absolutely wonderful r9kElsa is Suffering. I've included a reference to that work because it's literally one of the best Elsanna fics I've ever seen. Go check it out to celebrate Elsanna week, if you guys have the time! Just bring a box of tissues; your feels are going to get really bruised…

Oh, one last shout-out to Kameron the Barbarian, who left a review with some theories as to what was going on with Elsa. Sometimes, it's the ridiculous ideas that end up being true.

And now, finally, we can get on to the story. Let's do this!

**Update:** Fixed a problem down the line where there was an error in character dialogue. Thanks for pointing that out in the reviews, guys :)

* * *

It is never a good sign when someone shows up on your doorstep completely unannounced. It's even worse when that person has clearly been crying for a long time, is still crying, and collapses on your couch and continues to cry as soon as you open the door.

It took almost half an hour of coffee, chocolate chip cookies, and endless coaxing before Anna finally managed to peek out from the pillow currently soaked in tears and warble an explanation. It took a further five minutes before Kristoff was able to translate the sobs, sniffles and occasional outburst of wailing into something that was reasonably similar to English. As soon as he managed to decipher the words 'Elsa', 'fight', 'love', 'what to do' and 'sunglasses', Kristoff realised that his coffee, comfort and couch might not suffice to deal with the miserable redhead, and called back-up.

It was only after he ended up with four other females in his three-room apartment that the blonde man realised that maybe calling some of Anna's incredibly protective and/or temporarily anti-Elsa friends wasn't the best idea.

"It's okay, sweetie," Mulan said soothingly, stroking the sobbing girl's auburn hair as the latter clutched tightly to a pillow which had lost its absorbent ability ninety minutes ago. "Don't cry. There's nothing serious to be upset about."

"It's exactly what I'm saying," Merida huffed, her fiery temper reflected in her words as well as hair. The Scottish girl had been banished to the couch opposite Anna after her words were deemed unhelpful, but she seemed resolute to contribute to the 'Please Stop Anna Crying' club. "If the lass isn't turning out to be what you think you wanted, then I say you should drop her like she's hot. You don't need a man, you don't need a woman, you just need you and your friends and your family."

Anna burrowed her face further into the cushion and let out a dejected mew of disagreement. Pocahontas gave the youngest girl an irritated look, and motioned for Ariel to escort Merida to the kitchen to fetch another round of coffee. Turning back to the couch, the painter sat by her junior and rubbed her back encouraging.

"Ignore Merida, Anna. She's just never had to experience the kind of thing you're going through. She doesn't understand relationships or heartbreak or any of that. But I've been there before, okay? And I get it. Sometimes, the person who you think was meant to be just… isn't, you know? But if you let yourself move on from this, you _can_ meet someone else, somebody even more special."

"I don' wan' someone else," Anna mumbled, hair clinging to the wet tracks left by her tears. "I wan' someone Elsa."

Mulan sighed. The lacrosse captain had run all the way to Kristoff's place right after practice, and so sweat was still dripping from her forehead. Although she'd tied her long hair into a tight bun, loose strands were dangling against her cooling skin, sticking to her face.

"Look, Anna, I know that this is a tough time for you. But I think that maybe you should try look at this objectively. Elsa's a great person, she really is, but she might not be cut out for a proper relationship yet. But I just want to say that, before you make any rash decisions, remember that you don't know all the details. Just because you had one fight doesn't mean that you and Elsa aren't compatible. If Shang and I had let a fight stop us from ever making up, we wouldn't have known each other for more than a week. So what you should do is stop crying, put your chin up, and go talk to Elsa. Talk to her again, and this time don't let your emotions control you. Sometimes, you have to be tough. But sometimes, you should just be gentle. Find the balance between the two, and you'll be able to find out what it is that's bothering Elsa so much."

"I already talked to her," Anna sniffed. "And she kicked me out because of it."

"Anna, you _chose_ to walk out. That was technically your fault," Kristoff pointed out, gesturing with a carrot in hand. He tossed out any more ideas of contributing to the discussion when the two older girls shot him venomous looks, instead meekly taking a bite out of his vegetable.

"What we're _trying_ to say," Pocahontas said, rubbing the redhead's shoulders comfortingly, "is that you shouldn't beat yourself up about this. No matter how you choose to deal with this, you shouldn't cry about this now, not when you don't know how Elsa really feels. Whether or not she tells you the truth, it'll be up to you to decide on how you want this to play out. But until that happens, until you can talk to her, you shouldn't have to cry about this. You shouldn't have to feel bad because of something that's not your fault."

Anna's response was lost in the sound of the door being violently kicked open as a brunette with blazing green eyes stormed into the apartment. Sven let out a bark of surprise and fled to hide beneath Kristoff's chair.

"Where is she?" the petite girl demanded, eyes flashing dangerously. "Where's Anna?"

"Hi, Rapunzel," Kristoff said amicably, deciding that now wouldn't be the best time to complain about the damages he'd have to pay for if that door had broken. "Your cousin's here on the couch, beating herself up and generally feeling horrible."

"Oh _is_ she now?" Rapunzel said with the tone of someone getting ready to batter a goalie for letting the other team score. She stomped over to where Anna was lying despondently on the couch, ignoring the wide-eyed gazes of Pocahontas and Mulan. Hands on her hip, Rapunzel glared down at her cousin, who had retreated back into her pillow. "_What_ do you think you're doing, cuz? Because when I got a message from Kristoff saying that you were crying because you had a fight with Elsa, I didn't know who to whack with my frying pan first: Elsa, or you."

"Go away," Anna growled unhappily into her cushion. "No one invited you."

"This is _not_ how you were raised," Rapunzel said reaching down and ripping the cushion from Anna's grip. "Come on, girl! Why are you acting like a quitter, sitting here and feeling sorry for yourself? Is this the Anna we all know and love?"

"Elsa doesn't love her," the redhead moaned, eyes blinking against the sudden light as she groped for her only defence against the brunette's wrath. "Elsa doesn't trust her, either."

"Then Elsa's an idiot, and if you're going to let that make you go all Bella Swan on me, you're an even bigger idiot," Rapunzel said with a huff. "When I thought that Eugene was cheating on me, what did I do?"

"You locked yourself in your room and acted like an emo," Anna grumbled. "Give me back my pillow! Ow! Not like that!"

"What did I do _after_ that?" Rapunzel prompted, cushion lifted for another strike.

"You found out that your stepmother had planted the evidence on Eugene to make him look bad, because she didn't want you leaving home to go to the same university as him and live on campus," Anna recited grumpily. "Can I _please_ have my pillow back now?"

"Nope," Rapunzel said, tossing said object over her shoulder. It landed with a wet poof on Kristoff's carpet. "Not if it's going to make you act like a baby."

"_You're_ acting like a baby," Anna huffed, rolling over so that her back faced her irate cousin. "I'm in depression and you're beating me up. This is not how trauma is treated."

"Oh for _god's_ sake," Rapunzel declared with a roll of her eyes. "Anna, I took an entire detention class of bullies, drunks and kleptomaniacs and I turned them into pianists, bakers, mimes and interior decorators. I even made one of them my _boyfriend_, and it's been going great ever since."

"The highlight of your high school life," Anna grouched. "I know this story, 'punzel."

"Then let me ask you something, cuz. What's the _point_ of me telling you this story now?"

"You're reminding me that you have a stable relationship and I don't. Which isn't helping me feel any less depressed about this whole thing. The only reason I'm not crying still is because you've beaten my tear ducts into oblivion with that pillow. Which I still want back, by the way."

"No, dummy," Rapunzel retorted, looking like she seriously wanted to grab said pillow and bash Anna's tear ducts a bit more. "The point of this story is _why_ I decided to help reform those guys. They were all labelled as 'trouble kids' by the school, and even the counsellor had given up on them. 'All we can do is hope that they are incarcerated at an early age and learn their lesson quickly in a detention facility, before they do something that could have permanent records'. She actually wrote that on their file. So why did I decide that I could help all of them anyway? Why did I spend hours trying to get them to dance or sing or paint something that wasn't gang symbols and cuss words?"

"Because you're an all-loving person who could get a wild horse to love you," Anna said, crouching into the foetal position. "I'd be more impressed if you could do that with a reindeer. Actually, I want a reindeer right now. Reindeer are better than people, especially annoying cousins who won't let depressed and traumatised women get over the fact that their girlfriend hates them right now."

_"Who the hell likes reindeer?"_ Kristoff knew better than to voice that thought out loud, not with Rapunzel in full-out motivation mode.

"See, this right here, this is our problem. You're convinced that Elsa hates you, which is why you're depressed, which is why you're crying, which is why you're acting like a little girl who dropped her chocolate ice cream and won't listen to what anyone says. You're missing the obvious, cuz, because you're letting your emotions cloud your judgement."

"I'm not going to listen to you when you spout Yoda at me," Anna said, trying to retreat further into the back of the sofa.

"I helped those guys in detention because when I looked at them, I could see something special in them. Something that had made them so insecure and afraid that they made the bad decisions that got them into that position, but something that, if embraced, could turn their whole lives around and get them to realise their full potential. That something was a _dream_, Anna. They had dreams that they didn't want to admit or accept, and that's why they became so bitter and angry. Because they were scared. They were scared about their dreams, and scared about what would happen if they couldn't realise their dreams. I didn't turn their lives around with a stupid musical. I turned them around because I made them realise that unless they tried, they'd never know if they could succeed in their dream or not. And you know what, cuz? Elsa's exactly the same. She has a dream, but she's too scared about what will happen if she fails to make that dream a reality that she doesn't even want to try."

"Oh? And what's Elsa's dream?" Anna said sulkily.

Rapunzel slapped herself on the forehead.

"I have no idea how you got into university, Anna, I really don't. _How_ could you not realise this, after spending so much time with her, after _dating_ her?!"

Anna was silent. So were Pocahontas and Mulan. Even Kristoff had nothing to say to that. All of them just stared blankly at Rapunzel, trying to understand her point. Upon seeing their expressions, the brunette buried her face in her hands.

"I'm surrounded by idiots. This is worse than when Eugene tried to make me believe that his name was Flynn."

Frustrated, Rapunzel spun Anna around so that the redhead was looking her right in the eyes, teal meeting emerald.

"It's _you_, you idiot. _You_ are Elsa's dream."

Anna looked like she'd been smacked by the pillow again.

"What…"

"Exactly, doofus. Elsa doesn't hate you. She's just scared. She's scared because whatever it is that she's hiding, she thinks it'll scare you off."

"Why would she think that? I've never been anything but supportive of her, no matter what! Even when she told me her most embarrassing secrets, I never laughed or anything! I've made it clear that no matter how bad she thinks it is, I'll never give up on her. So why would she…?"

Kristoff saw this as his opportunity to join in.

"Like Rapunzel said, it's because she's scared. And people make big choices when they're scared, or stressed, or angry. Anna, you have to try see things from Elsa's perspective." Kristoff winced when the redhead gave him an absolutely flat stare. "Okay, bad choice of words. You know what I mean. Whatever it is that Elsa's hiding from you, Anna, she's doing it because she thinks that if you know, she'll lose you. And if Rapunzel's right, and there's nothing in the world that Elsa wants more than you…"

Understanding was beginning to dawn on Anna's face.

"She thinks that she'll push me away."

Kristoff nodded.

"Exactly."

The light of comprehension was quickly clouded by a shadow of despair.

"But what do I do now? I've already tried talking to her about it, but it doesn't work. She just won't let me in. She hides behind her glasses and just yells at me to leave her alone."

"I'll tell you what you _don't_ do," Rapunzel said, poking Mulan to make space on the couch's arm. "You _don't_ leave her alone. You persist. Don't get angry, or emotional. Don't say anything that could make Elsa want to go turtle even more. But make it clear that you're not going to stop until you know exactly what it is that Elsa's so afraid of. Because a burden's easier to bear if there's another pair of shoulders to share it with."

The doubt was wiped away from Anna's face as her expression settled into determination.

"Right. I know what I've got to do."

The redhead leapt to her feet, hastily brushing her hair out of her face as she tried to make herself look more presentable.

"Thanks for everything, you guys. I really needed this." Anna took a moment to quickly hug Rapunzel tightly. "Thank you so much. I finally understand." She then turned to Kristoff and threw her arms around him, squeezing tightly. "I'm sorry I had to do this at your place. I promise this wasn't intentional. Okay, it was, a little, but I didn't mean to get so emotional."

"Hey, it's cool." Kristoff said, patting her on the back awkwardly. "What are friends for, am I right?"

"Yeah," Anna said with a relieved smile. She released him and turned to Mulan and Pocahontas. "Thanks for indulging me in my pity-party, guys. I guess it's not easy being friends with such an emotional gal like me."

"Are you kidding? Wouldn't miss it for the world!" Mulan chirped, obviously relieved to see Anna act more like her peppy self.

"Go for it, champ," Pocahontas said with a smile. "You can do this."

"Hey!" Everyone turned at the sound of a loud Scottish accent as Merida walked in carrying a two bottles, Ariel trailing behind her, wringing her hands in distress. "So, I know that we were supposed to make coffee and all that, but I was thinking that with Anna so down, maybe she could use something a little stronger. Oh, hey Rapunzel." Merida proudly lifted her hands to display her bounty. "Two bottles of hard vodka. I thought we could use something with a little 'Oomph', you know?"

"Wait, did you take those from my fridge?" Kristoff blanched.

"Actually, Merida, I don't think that we need those-"

"Yeah, we've got things under control now-"

"No, she's right," Anna marched over to the younger redhead and seized a bottle. "I could use a little liquid courage." Anna took a mighty swig before thrusting the bottle back into Merida's hand, eyes burning. "God, that stuff's terrible. Well, thanks guys. I've got to hurry if I'm going to make it back to Elsa's house before sundown. Can I borrow someone's car?"

"Wait, you're going to Elsa's?" Ariel blurted.

"Sure, take mine," Rapunzel said, tossing Anna a set of keys. "I'll call a cab. Just fill it up before you bring it back, okay?"

"Thanks. Well, bye all!"

The door slammed shut as Anna left, not even taking the time to put on her shoes. Silence descended on the room as Pocahontas and Mulan smiled gently, Rapunzel wore a little smug smirk, Kristoff glared at Merida, and the two remaining redheads stood frozen, bottles still in the Scottish girl's hands.

"Did we miss something here?"

* * *

"Elsa! Elsa, open this door!"

Anna hammered on the front door to Elsa's house, not caring whether or not her parents were home, or if she was making a spectacle. After the pep talk she'd received from Rapunzel, Anna now knew that, no matter what, she had to fix this as soon as possible. She had to get Elsa to tell her the truth.

"Elsa! Open this door, or I swear to god that I will kick it down!"

The door clicked open softly, and Anna's heart leapt when she saw a slim figure in a blue shirt.

"Finally! Look, I know you're mad but-" Anna's heart froze mid-leap and came crashing down when she realised that the girl at the door had charcoal-black hair and a soft brown skin. "Oh. Hi, Jasmine."

Jasmine gave her a tight smile.

"Hi, Anna. Look, Elsa's not in the best of moods right now, so she's not really ready to see anyone. At all. Even you. Well, especially you. So if it's alright, maybe you could come back tomor-"

"No!" Jasmine frowned and Anna blushed at the sudden outburst. Stumbling over her tongue as she tried to convey her meaning, the redhead fought down the blush that threatened to turn her face the same colour as her hair. "No, that's not alright. I really need to see Elsa. Like, now. I messed up earlier, and I want to fix things. ASAP. Today. Preferably now."

"Look, I don't know what's going on exactly, but I do know that whatever happened earlier must've been a bit of a major thing, and as much as I'd love for you two to make up, this _is_ Elsa's house so-"

"Jaz? Jaz, it's okay. Elsa says to let her in."

Anna's heart fell slightly when she saw the pretty brunette who reached past Jasmine and opened the door wider to let Anna in. Dressed in a tight yellow T-shirt and form-fitting jeans, the older girl gave Anna a charming smile.

"Hi, Anna. Elsa's upstairs in her room. She says that you can come right on up."

Anna swallowed the lump in her throat that she hadn't noticed forming. She managed to give the girl who had claimed the title of Elsa's second friend (and could have been upgraded to first girlfriend if Anna hadn't asked first) a weak smile.

"Hi, Belle. Thanks for… for looking out for her. Is she doing okay?"

Belle's smile faltered as she looked down, not meeting Anna's gaze. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear so prettily that Anna couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

"Well, she's not crying, if that's something. Doesn't look like she cried at all, actually. So that's something! But, well… I guess it's better if you go up and see for yourself. She really wants to talk to you right now."

"Oh, okay. Sure. Thanks. I'll see you guys just now…" Anna trailed off as she walked up the stairs, waving awkwardly as Belle smiled at her encouragingly while Jasmine crossed her arms and tried to hide her worried look.

As Anna reached the top of the stairs and turned towards Elsa's room, she noticed Belle reach across and squeeze Jasmine's arm reassuringly, and heard the brunette whisper quietly.

"God, I hope this doesn't end badly."

* * *

Elsa started when she heard the door click open. Hastily, she shoved her sunglasses back on, swivelling her chair so that the back faced the door. She took a deep breath, steadying herself. She was doing the right thing. She had to be.

"Anna?"

God, her throat was so raw. Elsa had cried herself hoarse, and even though she'd shed not a single tear, her voice was thick with emotion. Elsa cleared her throat and tried again, hoping that she didn't sound absolutely pathetic this time.

"Anna, is that you?"

Nope. She still sounded absolutely broken.

The door clicked close as footsteps approached softly.

"Yes, Elsa. It's me."

Elsa let out a sigh of relief, one which caught in her throat when she heard the footsteps get uncomfortably close.

"No, stay right there! Just, right there. Can you… can you sit down at my drawing table? Please?"

The footsteps stopped, and Elsa tried not to bite her tongue off as she fought down the urge to sob at the sound of Anna's disheartened voice.

"O-Okay. Sure."

The footsteps retreated and there was a scraping noise as the chair was pulled back. A soft scuffle and the rustle of fabric told Elsa that Anna had sat down. Taking a deep breath, Elsa turned around in her swivel chair. She took small, measured steps as she rolled from her desk to the drawing table so that she could sit opposite from Anna. The tension between them was so thick that Elsa could practically feel it on her skin, and the silence was deafening as it rang with awkwardness.

"So, I've been thinking-"

"I wanted to tell you-"

Both girls stopped when they heard the other speak. Elsa, thrown off as her prepared speech evaporated from the interruption, prompted Anna to speak, trying to reorganise her thoughts.

"You first."

"No, I think that you should- Actually, no. No, I'll speak first. I need to get this off my chest."

"Please don't say you're breaking up with me," Elsa blurted. She stopped, horrified that she had said that aloud, but unable to stop the words bubbling up now that she'd started. "I know I haven't been the best girlfriend, and I know that I kinda screwed up, but I promise, I'll be better, I don't know what I'm doing and I think that you deserve better, but I'll try and-"

"What? No, Elsa, no! That's not it! Why would you- _I_ deserve better? Actually, don't answer that. It's not what I want to talk about. Just, I'm not breaking up with you, Elsa. If anything, I thought that you were going to break up with me."

For the second time in so many minutes, Elsa lost her train of thought at Anna's words.

"What? Why would I break up with you? You're perfect. You're amazing, you're smart, you're kind, you're a brilliant girlfriend, an incredible kisser, a-"

"That's the thing," Anna interrupted, stopping Elsa's rambling. "I'm not a brilliant girlfriend. In fact, I haven't even been a decent girlfriend. Because I couldn't tell what was bothering you."

Again, the words burst from Elsa before she could stop them.

"_What?_ You know? How did- How long have you-"

"No, no, not that. That's not it. That's not what I was talking about. I don't know what it is that you're trying to hide, or what it is about your eyes that you don't want to show me. I don't know any of that. But now I know something more important. I know _why_ you don't want to show me whatever it is you've been hiding. I know that you're scared that it'll chase me off, or disgust me, or anything like that. And that's why I'm a terrible girlfriend. Because all this while, all I could think was that you didn't want me to know your secrets, when in reality it was that you didn't want to lose me. This whole time, I was just blaming this whole thing on you, when all that you were thinking of was me.

"I'm not saying that you're a perfect girlfriend either, Elsa, far from it. It still hurts that you won't share your secrets with me; not because you're keeping secrets, that's not the thing. It's more that you won't trust me with your secrets."

Elsa finally found the link between her mouth and her brain.

"I do trust you! I trust you. I don't think, not ever, not even once, that you'll ever tell anyone my secrets."

Elsa heard Anna sigh.

"No, Elsa. You don't trust me. Not with this. And it's not about you worrying if I'll tell anyone or anything like that, because I know that you know that I won't. It's the fact that you don't trust me enough to be able to handle whatever it is that you're hiding. You don't believe me when I say that I'll always love you. You don't think that I'm telling the truth when I say that I don't care what's behind your glasses. _You don't trust me to be able to make my own decisions_."

Elsa blanched, physically flinching from that accusation.

"Wh-What?"

Elsa could hear the pity in the other girl's voice. The pity… and the sadness.

"Elsa, if you're hiding something that you think is bad enough that it'll make me not want to be with you any longer, then that means that our relationship isn't built on mutual trust and understanding. It means that you're hiding something that's big enough to completely change my understanding of you. _I_ don't think that it will, but the fact that you do means that there's something in our relationship that's causing this, this doubt. It means that there's something that's not working. And I want to fix it. But I can't do that unless you're ready to fix it with me.

"Neither of us are perfect people, Elsa. Nobody is. But unless we're willing to work at it, unless we're willing to try and fix whatever it is that's stopping us from trusting each other… Then we really will have to break up. Because we're both at fault, because we can't have that mutual trust… it means that neither of us really deserves the other. I want to deserve you, Elsa. And I want you to deserve me too. But we can't do that unless you tell me what it is that you're hiding."

"Anna, please…"

"No, Elsa. If it was something small and simple and silly, I'd be willing to overlook it. But not this. Not something that you think is so terrible that it'll drive me away from you. If it's that bad, if you _think_ it's that bad, then you don't trust me. And if you don't trust me, then how am I supposed to trust you?"

There had never been a silence as full as the silence that followed that question. Elsa had always hated the silence. She'd hated it. When you're blind, you have to rely on your hearing as your next best option. For her, silence was as good as being, well, as good as being blind.

Normally, there was no such thing as a true silence. There was always some noise. The sound of breathing. The sound of fingers scraping against the wood. The sound of chairs squeaking as weight shifted. But in that second, for just a second, Elsa experienced complete, utter silence. Anna was holding her breath. Her hands weren't fidgeting. She was rigid, stiff, unmoving, as she waited for response. She was completely, utterly silent, and for a horrible moment it was like the other girl wasn't even there.

Life without Anna would be silence. And that was something that Elsa would never be able to live with.

* * *

With trembling hands, Elsa reached forward. Her notepads were stacked on her drawing table in the same spot they always were. Elsa ran her fingers along their spines, trying to identify a specific sketchbook from the pile. It took longer than usual; with her hands shaking so much, it was hard to figure out which one it was. But as her finger caught on that particular stub, those particular markings, Elsa knew she had found it.

She pulled the notepad out of the pile, setting it between them. Elsa knew what to expect. Snowflakes doodled onto the front and back of the sketchbook. A cruel touch of irony that Elsa indulged in when she was feeling low, a mocking reminder to herself of the heartless nature of the world.

But it wasn't heartless. The world couldn't be heartless. Not so long as Anna was there.

Her hands shaking worse than ever, Elsa reached upwards, fingers vibrating against her cheeks as she ran them up her face to grip her sunglasses. She felt the cool plastic, far colder than it had any right to be in the current weather. Hands trembling so much that she almost lost her grip on the too-cold plastic, Elsa withdrew the shades with the darkened lenses from her face, the shades behind which she had stayed safe for so many years, protected from the judgement of the world.

And now, here she was, allowing herself to be judged by a woman who was only one person, yet somehow managed to matter more than the entire planet.

Elsa heard the gasp that escaped from Anna's lips. The gasp cut her to her heart, striking her far deeper than even she had expected, but the gasp was a sound. It was something identifiable. It was confirmation that Anna was still there, that Anna was still with her. And it was with that thought in mind that Elsa started speaking.

* * *

"I never lied to you." Despite everything, her voice was surprisingly calm, flat. Elsa marvelled at the utter lack of emotion as she spoke, a stark contrast to the storm that raged inside her. "I really was born blind. I've never seen colours, or the sky, or the clouds. I know shapes, but that's only because I've felt them. I had to paint my world using only four senses whilst others had five. Despite this, I never felt particularly unusual. I knew that I was different, of course, and there were times when I would come home and cry and ask my mom and dad why I'd been cursed. But then they would pick me up and kiss me and hug me and tell me that I couldn't have been cursed, not when I was such a blessing to them. And I would believe them, and life would go on as usual.

"Until one day, it didn't."

Elsa took a breath. She'd never told this story to anyone, ever. The only time she'd even recited part of it was when she had spoken to her parents after the accident, but even then she had omitted the key parts of this story, the part that mattered most.

"It was my fault, really. A blind girl should never wander too far from her parents, especially not in winter. When you can't see where you're going, when you have to rely on sound and touch, the crunch of snow and the sliding of ice and the numbing of cold… these are all dangerous. They blind me just as effectively as any blizzard would you. So it was foolish of me, really, to do what I did. But I was only a child. A child who'd been told she was a blessing. A child whose head was filled with too many dreams.

"When I heard the humming, it was soft, barely audible, but definitely there. But when I asked my dad about it, he said that he couldn't hear anything. Of course, it didn't occur to me that I just had better hearing than him. I was a little girl who believed she was destined for great things. I got excited. _'I'm like Daredevil'_ I thought to myself. _'I'm a superhero who can hear things that other people can't. Maybe I can even hear supernatural things. Maybe I'm hearing a ghost!'_ It wouldn't be the first time I'd imagined being a blind seer. Fantasy stereotypes can do terrible things to the wrong people, you know that?

"So anyway, like a little idiot, I run off as soon as my dad's looking the other way. All I could think was _'I'm going to find a ghost! I'm going to find something special! I'm going to be famous! The Blind Seer! People everywhere will know who I am! My parents will be so proud of me! Nobody will think that I'm weird because I'm blind! They'll think I'm special!'_ It's remarkable how much arrogance children can carry. And as they all say, the pride comes before the fall.

"I still don't know what that humming was. When you're blind and you encounter something you can't touch or smell or taste, you're pretty limited in your descriptions. All I know is that the humming was growing louder the closer I got to it, and that whatever it was, it was floating in the middle of the forest exactly where a tree should've been. And I know that it felt like glass. Like ice. And I know that it doesn't like being felt, because as soon as I touched it to figure out what it was, the next thing I know there's a shattering noise, I'm flying through the air and crashing into snow, and both my eyes are hurting with a pain that I'd never thought was possible.

"When I woke up, I was in hospital. My parents told me that they'd found me unconscious in the forest, lying in the snow. In front of me, though, there was nothing. The trees, the snow, the dirt, the rocks… Everything in front of me was just gone. There was just a crater in the middle of the forest, and a little blind girl next to it. But more importantly, when they found me, they told me that my eyes were like this."

Elsa reached up a finger and tapped her open eye, fingernail clinking against the ice.

"As a child, my eyes were normal. The milky white of the blind, maybe, but normal. After the accident though, my eyes turned into these. Ice. Complete, perfect, ice. Completely indestructible, too, in case you were wondering. They did tests and everything. Blood flows through them just fine. They're like perfect frozen reconstructions of human eyeballs. All the nerves and stuff are still there too, they aren't damaged by the cold or anything. Really, the only change that happened for me was that my eyes will now last long after I'm dead and rotting.

"But for my parents? Apparently, this changed everything. They called a government agent, and he made sure that the scientists would stay quiet. He took all of their research and test results, promised that there would never be any proof that I was anything but a blind little girl, and he said that he would keep my family informed if there were any breakthroughs. They were all very 007 about it. I think that they were more curious about what the anomaly in the woods was than about curing the condition of a girl who'd been blind anyways.

"But that's beside the point. Sorry, I'm getting side-tracked here. I've never been able to tell anyone my story before. The point is, after the accident, my parents were never really the same. Within a week of me being hospitalised, my mom gave me the sunglasses. Within a month of me being released from the hospital, my dad announced that we would be leaving. We would be going to someplace where nobody knew us, and, more importantly, nobody knew me. My dad told me that there would be no time for goodbyes, and he forbade me from exchanging e-mail addresses or telephone numbers or even getting Facebook. He promised me that I could have all of this again when we moved, but my old life had to die. When we moved, it would be with a fresh slate. Nobody would know where we'd gone, nobody would know how to contact us, and nobody would know what had happened to us. And thus, I started a new life in Arendelle, a life just like my old one, except that now I wore sunglasses, I was freakish instead of different, and, even though my parents have never, ever stopped loving me, I now knew that I truly was a curse."

Elsa cleared her throat. She was starting to get hoarse from talking so long, and the lack of reaction from Anna wasn't helping. But still, Elsa powered on. Now that she'd started talking, she knew that she had to finish the story, had to tell everything that there was to tell.

"That's not the end, though. Not soon after we moved here, that government agent came back. He told us not to worry, that nobody would ever find us here, but he said that there was no chance of a cure. He said that they thought that the thing I'd found in the forest was a 'quantum mirror' or something, some kind of link to another world. I wanted to hear more, but as soon as he said that, my dad told him to leave. He said that he would not tolerate mockery. See, my dad thought that the government agent was playing us for fools. My dad's always been a bit of a conspiracy theorist; he's never trusted these shady organisation types. The only reason that agent got involved was because my mom insisted on it, to try and help me. But my dad was and still is convinced that whatever it was in the forest, it was some kind of government experiment that had gone wrong, and now they're trying to hush it up. 'Why else would they be so willing to help us?' he said. 'Why would they work so hard to cover everything up?'"

"And what do you think?" Anna whispered. It was the first time she'd spoken in a while, and Elsa fought back the despair she felt at Anna's tone. It wasn't scared, or disgusted, or terrified. It was… dazed. Unfocused.

"Promise not to laugh?" Elsa said. There was no response. Elsa clamped down on the rising panic. No. No. She would tell Anna everything. The other girl deserved that much. "I believe the agent."

Elsa braced herself for the laughter, the mockery, the contempt. But she got nothing. Anna didn't laugh, or snort in disbelief, or say something sarcastic. She didn't respond at all.

The blonde rushed to explain herself, taking Anna's silence as a signal to continue, and hoping that it wasn't just because the younger girl was so stunned that she was incapable of basic speech.

"I know it sounds weird, bizarre, stupid even. Windows to other worlds? What kind of bullshit is that, right? And that's what I thought as well. Until, well… until the dreams started.

"Like I said, I was born blind. I've never seen anything in my life. I don't know what colours are, or what smiles look like, or what the sun and the moon look like. If you've never experienced it, if you don't have something to relate it to, no matter how hard you wish and imagine, you can never dream it. It's impossible. As a child, my dreams were dark. There was no light, no images: only sounds, smells, tastes, touches. Like my life, my dreams were empty of any sight. But after the accident, something changed. I started… Anna, I started _seeing_ things. In my dreams, I could _see_."

"What did you see?" Anna's voice was quiet, emotionless, flat. Elsa desperately wished that there was some way of telling what the other girl was thinking, if she believed any of this, if she accepted any of this, if she was getting ready to run and call the police. But there wasn't, so all that Elsa could do was keep talking.

Elsa pushed her notebook towards Anna. With trembling hands, she opened it, revealing the images she'd so painstakingly drawn in them.

"I never have the same dream twice," Elsa admitted. "I never see the same things twice, not in the same way. I can look at a tree in one dream and it'll look completely different to another tree in a different dream. When I noticed, I decided that I'd have to draw what I dreamt, so that I always knew what was happening. So that I could always keep track of my dreaams.

"Some dreams stand out, though. Even with as many as I've dreamt, there are some dreams which stick with me. These dreams… I don't even know how to explain it, Anna. They just feel so _real_. All my dreams feel real, but these ones are different. In most of my dreams, it feels like, like I'm _borrowing_ someone else's eyes. It's like I'm in their heads, and I'm seeing what they see from their viewpoint. It feels unnatural, and forced, and I can never quite draw it like I saw it when I wake up.

"But for these dreams… For these dreams, it's like _I'm_ in them. It's like _I'm_ seeing what's happening with _my_ eyes. And, here's the weird thing, even though I don't know what it feels like to see, it's like I can! Does that make sense?"

"No," Anna said softly. "Elsa, you're not making any sense at all."

"Anna, please, just try and understand!" Elsa cried, the words bursting from her. She was shocked by her own passion, but she was too desperate to stop herself. She _needed_ Anna to understand. If she didn't… Elsa wouldn't let herself think about that. She wouldn't.

Frantic, Elsa flipped through the pages of her notebook. She had traced over these images, these particular dreams so often, she knew exactly where they were in her sketchpad.

"Here!" Elsa's finger stabbed down onto the page. "This one, this is one of those dreams. I'm, I'm flying through the air, weightless. I've got nothing but a broom, and I'm wearing black robes to keep me from being cold, and my skin is green, and I can see the clouds and the blue sky, and I'm just soaring through the air, limitless, unstoppable-"

"Elsa," Anna said, uncertainty in her voice. "Elsa, you're scaring me now."

Desperation seized Elsa in ways she'd never thought it could. She was normally so calm, so rational… but she was vulnerable right now. She had bared herself, her deepest darkest secrets. She had opened her chest and exposed her heart and soul to Anna, and there was something about this level of intimacy that was driving the blonde insane.

She flipped in a frenzy to another page.

"This one, it's also from one of those dreams. I'm, I'm sitting at a computer, and I've never done that before, Anna. But here, I'm sitting at a computer, and I'm, I'm seeing a game, seeing a game avatar, and I'm playing as well, and my sister's outside knocking on the door, so I go over and open it-"

"Elsa." And this time, there was a note of panic in Anna's voice.

Something inside Elsa snapped. She flipped over to another page, traced the image to make sure that it's the right one.

"This dream, oh, Anna, this dream was one of my favourites. It was incredible, I felt so strong, I've _never_ felt strong, but here, I could do such incredible things! I could make snow and control ice, and all I could think was that I was free, I could see, I could use my powers to change my eyes back to normal, I could just be free from everyone's prejudices, but then this girl, this princess, she comes up the mountain to my castle, and I just want her to leave, but she loves me so she just won't go, and-"

"**_Elsa!_**"

That time, Anna did scream. And Elsa shut up. No, she did more than shut up. She threw herself backwards, away from the table, horrified. What had she done? What was she _thinking_? If Anna didn't think that she was a freak before, she definitely thought it now.

Elsa felt horribly exposed. She felt exposed, and vulnerable, and wounded, and there was only one thing to do when she feels like this, only one defence she possessed.

The blonde's hands scrambled across the tabletop as she searched frantically for her glasses, her eyes, she needed to cover her eyes. Her hand brushed against plastic and she grabbed it, not caring if it's the right side up, just needing to put them on-

A hand seized her wrist, stopping her from moving, stopping her from putting on the glasses.

Elsa went berserk. With a wail, she pulled violently, trying to free her hand, trying to get the glasses to her face, but the hand was deceptively strong, and it held her in place, handling her like a parent handled a child having a tantrum. Elsa was aware of someone screaming something, shouting something over and over, repeatedly, incessant, but it didn't make sense, it wasn't a word, what was it saying-

**_"ELSA!"_**

_Crack!_

Elsa fell back into her chair, stunned. The glasses dropped from her grip. With a shaking hand, Elsa feels her smarting cheek, trying to comprehend what had happened.

She had been smacked. By whom? Wait, of course. Anna.

Anna had smacked her.

Elsa was suddenly aware of the heavy breathing coming from opposite her, suddenly aware of everything in the room, of everything that had transpired. Oh god. Oh, no, no, no, no. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Anna. Oh god, what would Anna think?

Elsa closed her eyes, just wanting to hide the cold ice that should have remained hidden.

"Elsa."

Reflexively, Elsa opened her eyes. And immediately shut them again. A sob burst from her, and another, and another. Elsa sniffled, tried to control herself, but now that she had started, she couldn't stop. She started crying, a low keening leaking out of her chest. There were no tears, though. There were never any tears. Her frozen eyes made sure of that. But everything else… everything else was collapsing. Just like that, she fell apart. After so long, after working so hard to keep herself under control, to keep her secret safe… it was all over. One moment of weakness, one foolish desire to be with a girl she would lose anyway… and her whole life just collapsed in on itself.

Elsa didn't know how long she stayed like that, breaking into tiny pieces, shattering into shards of a woman she had tried so hard to sculpt. She broke, collapsed, fell apart. It was over. Just like that. Everything was over.

Except… why was Anna holding her? Some distant part of Elsa's brain wondered to itself why this girl, this wonderful, brilliant girl was still here, why she was holding Elsa, as if she was trying to hold her together, stop the pieces from just blasting in every direction.

"Elsa," Anna breathed into the shaking blonde's ear, and never had they been so intimately linked. She couldn't feel, she couldn't smell, she couldn't taste, she couldn't see… But she could still hear. With that single word, Anna made up the entirety of Elsa's world. Whatever Anna chose to say next, it would make them or break them.

"I believe you."

It didn't register.

"What?" Elsa croaked.

"I believe you," the other girl breathed. "I believe you, I believe you, I believe you. And I'm here for you, I'll always be here, I don't care what you think, or what others think, or what the whole fucking world thinks. I believe you, I'm here, and I'll always stay here."

"Why?" Elsa breathed, her whole body shaking from the effort of saying that one word.

"Because," Anna said softly. "Because I get the feeling that we're meant to be. That somehow, somewhere, somewhy, someone meant for this to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"Elsa," and now, the blonde could feel the lips press against her ear, the lips tilting into a smile. "Elsa, you drew me."

"What?"

"In your notebook. The girl from your dreams, the princess who loves you. Elsa, _you drew me._"

**To Be Continued**

* * *

A/N: So… Um… Yeah… I don't expect any of you saw this coming, right? Not much to say here other than I hope that this didn't drag on too long, and that while this didn't turn out quite like how I planned and hoped, I'm still fairly okay with the final version.

Given that I'm also completely exhausted and lack a beta reader, it's entirely possible that there could be some issues here that I need to go over. If you spot anything subpar, please leave a review telling me how to improve, and I'll go back and see if I can fix it.

But, in summary, I hope that you enjoyed this. It's super long (almost the length of three normal chapters), but it hopefully finally clears up any questions that you might have had. If you have the time, please leave a review. If not, well, I give credit to you for somehow managing to read this monstrosity to the end. Kudos to you!

One last chapter left! Until then, catchya later! :D


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